1.3c How impactful are social media trends on food safety behaviours and what can be done to rapidly identify such trends?
Background
Foodborne disease (FBD) is a major public health risk with 2.4 million individual illnesses and more than 16,000 hospitalisations per year. It imposes an annual burden on society equivalent to £9.1 billion. The majority of human foodborne disease is caused by a handful of pathogens (including norovirus, campylobacter, salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and listeria) which, in most cases, enter the food chain from farmed animals or the environment.
In addition to FBD, the agri-food supply chain also poses a risk for the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Addressing the public health threat posed by AMR is an ongoing strategic priority for the UK and the Government has recently published its new 5-year AMR National Action Plan (NAP) 2024-29 (Opens in a new window), which sets out actions to slow the development and spread of AMR.
The overarching aim of this research priority is to provide evidence to enable the FSA to better control the spread of FBD and AMR within the food supply chain. For both threats, taking a ‘One Health’ approach is important, to understand the sources (e.g. livestock) and routes (e.g. food and environment) of infection and ultimately the impact (e.g. on humans).
As well as characterising new and emerging threats, we need to build our current understanding as to the attribution, prevalence, and nature of existing FBD and AMR risks, filling key evidence gaps which will support improved control measures and enhance food hygiene policy. We are also seeking to build capability in this area through development of new surveillance methods, which in turn can support the FSA’s work on trade and border inspections, as well as supporting broader disease and incident management.
Next steps
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Related UKRI funded projects
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Expansion of the Food Safety Research Network to create and mobilise new capabilities that act on microbial risk
UK consumers expect their food to be safe, and food producers and government are vigilant and work diligently to ensure safety of food supplies. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) reports that food-associated incidents are ...
Funded by: BBSRC
Lead research organisation: Quadram Institute Bioscience
Why might this be relevant?
Partially relevant as it focuses on microbial risk in food safety but does not specifically address social media trends.
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Citizen Science and Antimicrobial Resistance
Our team brings together citizen science expertise (PI West) with expertise in antimicrobial resistance (CoIs Swift, Ray) and food systems (CoI Whatford), with national and local food growing organisations (Garden Organi...
Funded by: BBSRC
Lead research organisation: University of York
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on citizen science and antimicrobial resistance, directly addressing the impact of social media trends on food safety behaviors.
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FoodSafeR - A joined-up approach to the identification, assessment and management of emerging food safety hazards and associated risks
In Europe, each year foodborne hazards, including bacteria, parasites, bacterial toxins and allergens, already cause more than 20 million cases of illness and thousands of deaths. Foodborne chemical risk, often associate...
Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee
Lead research organisation: QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on the identification and management of emerging food safety hazards, which can be related to identifying social media trends impacting food safety behaviors.