Food Safety Five Newsreel

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This episode of Food Safety Five discusses several foodborne pathogens that have been recently highlighted by researchers due to their unusual nature, emergence, and increasing public health significance, including a rare Salmonella strain, an STEC/ETEC hybrid, Group B Streptococcus, and drug-resistant Shigella.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses new academic publications exploring the limitations of a “zero-risk” approach to food safety and evaluating the limited benefits and trade-offs associated with intensified microbiological sampling.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses the Environmental Working Group’s 2026 “Dirty Dozen” list of the most “pesticide-contaminated produce,” including ongoing debate over the list’s methodology and its relevance to food safety and public health.

This episode covers new research on food allergen risks in processing environments, including studies on allergen recovery from environmental swabs, cross-contamination in shared frying oil, and dispersal of allergenic food powders. Also discussed is an EU proposal to harmonize precautionary allergen labeling (PAL) requirements.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses expert perspectives on the Healthy Florida First food contaminant testing program, including information gaps about the testing and risk assessment methodology and why this missing information matters.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses updated USDA-FSIS guidance on Listeria testing in RTE facilities, the latest on the Boar’s Head facility behind the fatal outbreak of 2024, and a real-world Listeria “Seek and Destroy” success story.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses new research about the rising Salmonella disease burden worldwide and the utility of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for Salmonella surveillance.

This episode of Food Safety Five reads between the lines of the revised Dietary Guidelines for Americans, discussing its use of the term “highly processed foods,” how its definition differs (or does not differ) from the debated “ultra-processed foods” category, and the potential implications for food policy.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses a food safety issue that was covered in some of our most-read scientific articles of 2025: microplastics release from food contact materials and contamination of food.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses scientific recommendations around ultra-processed food (UPF) definitions and policy, a study demonstrating the antimicrobial efficacy of common sanitizers in potato wash water, and a review outlining the food safety risks of edible flowers. Also discussed are regulatory and standards developments in the U.S., EU, and at the international level.