The global food system is undergoing unprecedented change. Driven by climate disruption, rapid technological advances, shifting consumer demands, and complex geopolitical instability, new food safety risks are constantly emerging. It’s no longer just about controlling well-known pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli; the focus is shifting to proactive resilience against novel contaminants, advanced fraud, and system-wide vulnerabilities.
Drawing on recent scientific publications and regulatory insights from bodies like the U.S. FDA, WHO, and EFSA, here are the top 10 emerging food safety risks that the industry, regulators, and consumers must address in the coming years.
The Top 10 Emerging Food Safety Risks
Climate Change-Driven Contaminants 🌡️
Climate change is fundamentally altering food production ecosystems. Extreme weather events like droughts and floods stress crops, which can increase the risk of contamination.
- Mycotoxins: Increased temperatures and variable humidity in storage and fields promote the growth of toxigenic fungi (like Aspergillus and Fusarium), leading to higher levels of mycotoxins (e.g., Aflatoxins, Deoxynivalenol) in grains, nuts, and spices (Source: EFSA, 2025; Frontiers, 2025).
- Marine Biotoxins (e.g., Ciguatoxins): Rising sea temperatures and changing ocean currents are expanding the geographical range of toxic algae blooms, leading to a higher risk of potent neurotoxins, such as ciguatoxins, in seafood—an issue that regulatory bodies like EFSA are actively monitoring (Source: EFSA, 2025).
Antimicrobial-Resistant (AMR) Pathogens 💊
The overuse of antimicrobials in both human and animal medicine drives the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. Food serves as a vehicle for transmitting these “superbugs” from animals and the environment to humans, making conditions like drug-resistant Salmonella and Campylobacter increasingly difficult to treat.
- Genomic Surveillance: Recent scientific efforts, supported by networks like the CDC’s PulseNet, are increasingly using Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to track the precise movement of AMR strains through the food supply chain, helping to isolate the source of outbreaks more effectively than traditional methods (Source: ResearchGate, 2025).
Risks from Alternative & Novel Proteins 🔬
As the world seeks more sustainable food sources, the market for plant-based, insect-based, and cell-cultured (lab-grown) proteins is rapidly expanding, introducing novel food safety considerations.
- New Processing Hazards: Ensuring the safety of complex novel processing techniques for these foods is critical.
- Allergens and Substrate Safety: For insect-based foods, potential cross-reactivity with crustacean or dust mite allergens must be assessed. For cell-based meat, the safety of the growth media (scaffolds and feed components) is a new regulatory focus (Source: WUR eDepot, 2025).
Microplastics and Nanoplastics 🧪
Microplastic particles, omnipresent in the environment, are increasingly being detected in food, water, and even air. The long-term health effects of consuming these particles and the chemical additives they carry remain a major, yet largely unknown, risk.
- Regulatory Gap: There is an urgent need for standardized methods to measure plastic particle exposure in food and to conduct robust toxicological assessments to inform future regulatory limits.
Advanced Food Fraud and Economic Adulteration 💰
The rising cost of raw materials and complex global supply chains create stronger incentives for sophisticated food fraud—the intentional misrepresentation of food for economic gain.
- High-Value Targets: Common targets include honey, olive oil, spices, and organic products, where substitution, dilution, or mislabeling can occur across multiple international checkpoints.
- Technological Countermeasures: Industry is responding with DNA barcoding and spectroscopy to verify authenticity, but proactive supplier auditing remains paramount (Source: URM Magazine, 2024).
Allergen Cross-Contact in Evolving Products 🥜
Allergens continue to be one of the top reasons for food recalls globally, but the risk is amplified by two factors:
- Novel Ingredients: The increasing use of ingredients from diverse global sources makes it harder to control for accidental cross-contamination.
- Unlabeled Allergens in New Packaging: Regulatory agencies are identifying risks, such as the potential migration of allergens like gluten from novel bio-based and biodegradable food contact materials where allergen labeling is not typically mandated (Source: EFSA, 2025).
Geopolitical and Supply Chain Disruptions 🚧
Allergens continue to be one of the top reasons for food recalls globally, but the risk is amplified by two factors:
- Prolonged Transit Times: Shipping delays for perishable goods can break the “cold chain,” leading to spoilage and pathogen growth (Source: Creme Global, 2025).
- Substandard Sourcing: Disruptions can force manufacturers to rapidly switch to unverified or lower-standard suppliers, increasing the chance of chemical, physical, or biological contamination.
Emerging Viral and Parasitic Hazards 🦠
While bacterial risks are well-managed, non-bacterial hazards like viruses and parasites are often under-reported and lack rapid diagnostic tests in food safety monitoring.
- Hepatitis and Noroviruses: These can persist in the environment and are often linked to fresh produce (like berries) and shellfish that are consumed raw or lightly cooked.
- New Zoonotic Threats: The emergence of new zoonotic threats, such as strains of Avian Influenza (H5N1) detected in dairy cattle, poses a risk to the milk supply and requires heightened surveillance and cross-sectoral “One Health” vigilance (Source: FDA, 2025; Food Safety News, 2025).
Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) 🚰
Known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are widely used in food packaging, non-stick coatings, and fire-fighting foams. They are persistent in the environment, bioaccumulate, and can leach into food, especially fatty items.
- Widespread Contamination: Regulators are increasingly scrutinizing the full extent of human exposure to PFAS from food, as their presence is confirmed in diverse sources, including sea spray, which can contaminate terrestrial crops (Source: EFSA, 2025).
Regulatory Gaps in the Digital Food Economy 💻
The rise of the digital food economy—including dark kitchens, third-party delivery services, and decentralized food production models—outpaces current food safety regulations.
- Control and Traceability: Ensuring consistent food safety standards, temperature control during the “last mile” of delivery, and traceability in a complex, multi-party network presents an enforcement challenge for regulators (Source: Food Standards Agency, 2024).
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Risks: While AI promises better predictive risk modeling, the reliance on complex, non-transparent algorithms to manage critical control points could also introduce a new systemic risk if data quality or model design is flawed (Source: WUR eDepot, 2025).
Conclusion
The future of food safety requires a transition from reactive testing to proactive, resilience-focused risk management. This means leveraging new technologies like genomic surveillance and digital traceability to manage the interconnected drivers of risk—particularly climate change and the rapid introduction of novel foods—that are defining the next era of food safety.
1. EFSA (European Food Safety Authority): EFSA Reports and Activities on Emerging Risks (2025).
2. FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration): Public Health Advisories and Outbreak Investigations (2025).
3. Food Standards Agency (FSA) UK: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities Research (2024).
4. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems: A FoodSafeR perspective on emerging food safety hazards and associated risks (2025).
5. ResearchGate: Emerging Trends in Food Safety and Quality Management (2025).
6. URM Magazine: Food Safety Trends in 2024-2025: Keeping Standards High in a Changing World (2024).
7. WUR eDepot (Wageningen University & Research): Megatrends and emerging issues: Impacts on food safety (2025).
