Climate change will have a dramatic impact on food safety in the years to come, both from extreme weather events and damage to the infrastructure of food storage and shipment.
“The number of extreme [weather] events is increasing. And when those extreme events occur, the electricity, the facilities that are used to store food, are affected,” Lewis H. Ziska, PhD, Associate Professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, told Rootwurks last week.
“Food becomes more exposed to different bacteria, to different viruses and different fungi,” Ziska explained, describing what happens when extreme weather events hamper the ability to keep food in a cool, dry environment during transport and storage.
Ziska said another dangerous vector is contamination that occurs out in the field, where crops destined for the consumer market are grown.
He also described how flooding can cause runoff to pollute water supplies. He used as example a flood of a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), which then draws fecal matter and other contaminants into the irrigation supply.
“So one of the issues is not just that the temperature will be more suitable for greater exposure. But that the Change in climate per se will have a direct effect in terms of moving these pathogens around so that they can contaminate the food while it's still in the field before it's even been picked,” Ziska said.
In a March 2015 review article for Physiology, Ziska wrote that “changes in environment can influence post-harvest pathology in ways that can promote mycotoxins, including aflatoxin contamination of staple foods such as corn and peanuts. Pathology can exacerbate food availability (spoilage) but also directly affect foodborne disease outbreaks.”
The same year, the USDA published the report “Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System.”
The report stated that “processing, packaging, and storage are very likely to be affected by temperature increases that could increase costs and spoilage. Temperature increases could also make utilization more difficult by increasing food-safety risks.”
The authors of the report concluded that to face the rising threats to food safety "it is needed to understand the implications of climate change on food security.”
Professor Ziska spoke to Rootwurks amid an ongoing effort by the Trump Administration to cut staff at some of the government agencies responsible for ensuring food safety.
Earlier this month, CBS News reported that almost 1 in 5 positions in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) human food inspection division are now vacant. The article links this to a hiring freeze and departures encouraged by the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts at the FDA and elsewhere.
The article also quoted a current FDA official who stated that around 40% of investigator positions are vacant in the group responsible for inspecting critical foods like infant formula.
In March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was cutting 10,000 full-time employees across health agencies, including the FDA, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“You have this juxtaposition between greater threats that are already occurring and are certainly gonna be exacerbated in the future with climate, and at the same time, our ability to meet that challenge to make sure that the food is safe, is under threat,” Ziska said.
When asked what could be done to better manage the growing threats to food safety posed by climate change, Ziska said that food safety risks must be understood not only by food industry employees but also by consumers at home. They need to make sure to wash any produce and use common sense when it comes to what they purchase and consume.
He called on the food industry and politicians to communicate these risks “in a way that the public will understand.”
For food companies, Ziska said two clear demands are necessary.
“Food companies can recognize that climate, especially extremes in climate, will increase food contamination risks and must respond to this and increase their efforts to advocate for better inspections at the federal level.”
He called on food companies “to pick up the slack” and make sure “their food does not become spoiled and they don’t get a bad reputation. And it’s obviously to their benefit to do so.”
He added, “this is one of those things where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You can really make a difference in terms of getting ahead of the game. You won't get any recognition for it but it makes a huge difference in terms of the public health effect.”
The authors of a 2021 review on food safety and climate change published in the Journal of Food Protection wrote that “empowerment of the different actors in the food chain to implement food safety management programs in the production systems is also key.”
They added that “developing food safety preparedness plans in the event of natural disasters should also be a national priority for every country,” and called for a concerted effort to support government-owned public health laboratories in their food safety research and to educate the general population on threats to food safety.
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