Food safety assurance in the pre-harvest phase

A considerable number of pre-harvest factors jeopardise the safety of foods of animal origin. These include factors related to the food animal environment (industrial activity in the immediate production surroundings leading to microbiological or chemical contamination), epidemiological factors resulting from intrinsic characteristics of classical and emerging microorganisms, an increasing degree of chemical pollution, husbandry / harvesting practices (particularly associated with animal feed), and veterinary activities introducing antibiotic resistancy of foodborne pathogens. All of these areas are addressed in this publication by scientists of worldwide repute and affiliated with both Academia and Industry. The involvement of Public Health strategians representing two most powerful tradeblocks (EU and USA) will be extremely important for the scientific community involved in Food Safety Assurance research, as the policies currently set out will inherently have severe impact on associated research strategies in the next decade.