The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) has shared six food safety trends it believes will shape 2026 and how the food safety community can help strengthen the entire food system. PFSE says these trends underline the need for food safety educators, regulators, and industry partners to meet consumers where they are, share information in ways they trust, and work together to extend collective impact.

The trends shaping food safety in 2026 according to PFSE are:

1. More Meals Prepared at Home: Driven by affordability concerns and health consciousness, consumers are spending more time eating at home and preparing their own meals. With more home cooking comes greater responsibility for consumers to handle food safely, creating the need for trustworthy guidance.
2. Convenience: Convenience remains a dominant driver of shopping and meal decisions. Consumer understanding is critical to ensuring these products remain safe from purchase to plate.
3. Air Frying: Air fryers have become a central appliance in many kitchens. Air fryers cook differently from traditional ovens or stovetops, and air fryers have individual differences. Consumers may assume foods are fully cooked based on appearance rather than internal temperature, increasing the risk of undercooking of food.
4. Limited Resources for Education: State and local budget shifts are changing how food safety education is delivered. Many organizations are being asked to do more with fewer resources, making collaboration essential. Ready-to-go, adaptable content is important to help professional health and food safety educators to maintain reach and consistency even when staffing or funding is limited.
5. AI Summaries: Artificial intelligence (AI)-generated summaries, voice assistants, and conversational search tools are increasingly replacing traditional web searches. People are often receiving condensed answers rather than full articles, which raises the stakes for accuracy, clarity, and consistency. Food safety guidance must be concise, plain-language, and structured in ways that AI tools can easily interpret and share correctly.
6. Health and Nutrition: As conversations around nutrition expand, food safety must remain part of the dialogue. Nutrition experts need to be empowered with safe food handling information that complements nutritional goals, protects vulnerable populations, reduces foodborne illness risk, and ensures that healthy foods remain safe to consume.

PFSE calls for food safety educators to modernize their approaches, strengthen partnerships, and ensure food safety remains relevant, visible, and effective. By bringing together educators, government, and industry, food safety educators can align messages and create a shared platform for collaboration.