Food Safety

Report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

The Chief Scientific Advisor Science Reports provide a greater understanding of our science and insights into some of our cutting edge work.

Agricultural Research Service

February 2019

This research evaluated factors affecting survival durations of E. coli in soils amended with manure to determine if the current Food and Drug Administration ‘no objection’ position on a 90 or 120-day interval between application of untreated manure and harvest of crops is adequate to avoid transfer of pathogens to crops.  

The social science team at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) led research on young people with food allergies and intolerances to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges young people face living with their condition. The research was supported by Allergy UK and Anaphylaxis Campaign, who allowed us to contact their membership providing our targeted sample base.

A synthesis report identifying cross-cutting and emerging trends across three research projects: Efficacy of Recalls (2017), Regulating our Future (2016) and Transparency: understanding public views and priorities (2017).

The annual Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) report 2017 shows that the level of man-made radioactivity to which people in the UK are exposed remained below the EU legal limit.

Contains resources related to developing and managing HACCP-based school food safety programs.

This report includes the background, design, and results of data collection on the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors in the United States in restaurant settings during 2013-2014. It is a stand-alone report representing the first data collection period of the FDA’s current 10-year study on trends in the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors, food safety behaviors/practices, and interventions in food service facilities. Data from the 2013-2014 collection will be used as a baseline to assess trends in the occurrence of risk factors during data collections, in 2017 and 2021. Additional data collections in 2015, 2019, and 2023 investigate similar retail food safety research questions in institutional food service settings and retail food stores. 

EFSA has developed a new food safety management approach that makes it simpler for small retailers to donate food.