Advancing food safety: strategic recommendations from the 'ONE - Health, Environment & Society - Conference 2022'

Every 3–4 years, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) organises an international scientific conference that brings together experts and stakeholders to discuss key food safety topics and share knowledge, data and expertise. The latest edition of the conference entitled ‘ONE – Health, Environment & Society – Conference 2022’ took place on 21–24 June 2022 in Brussels and online, marking EFSA's 20th anniversary. For the first time, the conference was organised with EFSA's partner agencies – the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – as well as the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, with the ambition to embrace the One Health approach to ensure more integrated, transdisciplinary and collaborative health assessments (Bronzwaer et al., 2021; FAO, UNEP, WHO and WOAH, 2022). Over 2,700 participants from academia, public institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organisations, mostly from the European Union (EU), attended and contributed to the conference, either in-person or remotely. The conference consisted of a series of plenary sessions (#2) and breakout sessions (#17) organised around four thematic tracks (One Life, One Planet, One Society and Many Ways) across three interconnected tiers (food safety, One Health and food system sustainability). These sessions were complemented by side events, a poster exhibition gallery and networking opportunities for both in-person and online participants. The conference included more than 120 talks and over 250 digital posters. The event was designed to explore how scientific advice on food safety and nutrition will need to develop to respond to new policy targets and societal demands for safe, nutritious and sustainable food. The conference also addressed how institutions that provide scientific advice on public health, environmental protection, food safety and nutrition should work more closely together and increase their preparedness for the challenges presented by a fast-changing world. This Editorial sets out the main recommendations that emerged from the conference to achieve these aims. More details about the outcomes of the conference are reported in Devos et al. (2022). The EU food safety regulatory framework provides European consumers with some of the highest food safety standards worldwide (EFSA, 2021). Since 2002, EFSA has been contributing to the safety of food by: providing independent scientific advice to risk managers (the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU Member States) on a wide range of food-related issues; and communicating and engaging on existing and emerging risks in the food and feed chain. EFSA's scientific advice helps to protect consumers, animals, plants and the environment from food-related risks. However, the science, society and policy interface in which EFSA operates is changing faster than ever before (Smith et al., 2021; Garcia-Vello et al., 2022; Url, 2022). Therefore, the potential impacts of recent developments on food safety and how we can respond were considerations placed at the core of the conference agenda. In order that we can continue to best protect human, animal, plant and environmental health, and deliver the highest value for society, conference participants encouraged EFSA to: (1) keep up with the latest developments in science and technology, capitalising on data; (2) invest in future preparedness; (3) support the transition towards sustainable food systems; (4) increase relevance to society; (5) team up with food safety actors across the EU and beyond; and (6) apply the One Health approach. To remain fit for purpose, food safety assessments will need to keep up with the latest developments in science and technology, and capitalise on new data. We are faced with an exponential growth in data, fast-paced innovation in science and technology, increased complexity of science and technology, and enhanced computing power. These developments present both challenges and opportunities for how to conduct food safety assessments. Future challenges must be anticipated to avoid the risk of becoming overtaken by new developments. This necessitates the development and implementation of tools that can identify emerging food safety issues and risks at the global, regional and national levels, so that measures to control, prevent and/or monitor them can be proposed and put in place in a timely manner. At the conference, specific emphasis was put on strengthened foresight, horizon scanning, monitoring/surveillance, hot spot mapping, and greater liaison among existing networks on emerging risks. These were identified as some of the early warning tools that must be further developed and more widely implemented in the context of disease outbreaks, antimicrobial resistance and biological invasions of plant pests. The need to develop new and agile processes for rapid assessments to support policy action when incidents occur was also discussed. Food systems need urgent and significant transformation if they are to meet sustainability targets. To be considered sustainable, food systems will need to operate within planetary boundaries. As part of the European Green Deal, the EU has put forward its Farm to Fork Strategy that sets unprecedented ambitions to make the EU food system more sustainable and resilient. In addition, the EU intends to adopt a legislative framework for sustainable food systems by the end of 2023 that will address the sustainability of both products and processes (e.g. circularity, food loss and waste reduction, promotion of more nutritious and sustainable diets). Consequently, food is now expected to meet the highest standards of nutrition and sustainability, in addition to being safe, accessible and affordable for all. Safe food is the basis for healthy diets and sustainable food systems. The scope of food safety, in particular regarding its link to nutritional and food sustainability aspects, has been changing over time in line with innovation in science and technology, new policy targets and societal demands. To respond to the latest policy developments, food safety must be understood from a broader perspective, ensuring that nutritional and (environmental) sustainability considerations are taken into account. Consideration of risks and benefits, including possible comparisons with alternative interventions available, may be necessary to ensure the wider context is fully taken into account. The relationship between science and society has become increasingly complex due to the growing diversity of channels for knowledge exchange and the nature of interactions. This increased diversity broadens the range of scientific and non-scientific actors with whom to engage, and of the issues and concerns that must be addressed. In addition, digitalisation has fundamentally changed how we interact and communicate with the public. Finally, recent amendments to the EU Food Law introduced by the Transparency Regulation have further prompted EFSA to integrate societal expectations for more transparency and openness in its risk assessment processes. Collaboration was a central theme of the conference. Participants encouraged EFSA, without delay, to take concrete steps to move collaboration forward as an essential means to address the growing complexity in science and society. Trustworthy collaboration between food safety actors is to be intensified to address the complexity collectively, and better connect and integrate knowledge, data and expertise across actors and sectors. To unlock the ecosystem's full potential, we must foster an institutional culture in which collaboration is inherently valued. Collaboration should become a strategic objective in itself that is incentivised and rewarded. Therefore, we must further develop the EU's collaborative ecosystem of food safety actors to include not only those that have already indicated their interest in being part of it, but also new partners identified through new sourcing and partnership schemes. The European Green Deal highlights many areas that will require an interinstitutional and transdisciplinary way of working if its ambitions are to be realised. While EFSA and its partner agencies provide scientific advice on public health, environmental protection, food safety and nutrition, this advice must be integrated to address the challenges of tomorrow. The One Health approach, which stands for an integrated and systemic approach to health, provides a new way of working to connect and integrate knowledge, data and expertise across a wide range of disciplines, sectors and actors (as outlined in recommendation 5, above). Application of the One Health approach will enable health assessments to be delivered that frame an issue holistically, integrate diverse data, transcend regulatory silos, and recognise the inextricable link between the health of humans, animals, plants and their shared environment. In doing so, our health assessments could better support the transition to safe, nutritious and sustainable food (Figure 1). The implementation of the One Health approach will require new skills and education in systems science, with an emphasis on science translation and integration, and commitment to work together. Operating at the nexus of four One Health domains (i.e. human, animal, plant and environmental health), and relying on collaboration to assist in solving complex health issues, EFSA and its partner agencies collectively can provide the greatest value for society by delivering more integrated and transdisciplinary advice to risk managers including policymakers. In recent years, they have successfully applied the One Health approach in the areas of zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and bee health, and have started to extend this to other areas such as environmental risk assessment. An important concrete outcome of the conference is that EFSA and its partner agencies have committed to establish a cross-agency One Health task force to discern how best to work together to move transdisciplinary research and scientific advice on One Health issues forward. This will enable us to further develop cross-agency relationships, exchange on experiences gained and attain optimal health outcomes. The main recommendations for advancing food safety that emerged from the ‘ONE – Health, Environment & Society – Conference 2022’ build on the strategic goals of EFSA's 2027 Strategy (EFSA, 2021). They confirm that the strategic directions taken by EFSA will enable it to continue delivering fit for purpose food safety assessments that protect human, animal, plant and environmental health, while contributing to sustainable development goals. The proceedings of the conference, which are available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2022.09.014, have been published as a conference report article in the international peer-reviewed journal Trends in Food Science & Technology (see Devos et al., 2022). The full programme of the conference, speaker and poster abstracts, presentations/slides, video recordings and interviews with leading experts, including representatives of our partner agencies and JRC, are publicly available at the conference website (https://www.one2022.eu/) and/or EFSA's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/EFSAchannel/videos).