Scientists examined how much attention is paid to food safety and foodborne illness in One Health studies.
The study, which examined trends in One Health research over the past decade, found that the volume of work called One Health has increased since 2018. It was published in One Health magazine. CABI One Health Magazine. CABI is an international non-profit organization dedicated to agriculture and the environment.
One Health is an approach designed to optimize the health of people, animals, plants, ecosystems and the environment.
The One Health Quadrilateral Program has a Joint Plan of Action (JPA) for 2022–2026. The quadripartite organization, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), has identified six priority areas in the JPA. Action Area 4 includes food safety.
The Pesticides and Mycotoxins Gap
The study covered trends in 6,168 One Health-labeled publications from 2010 to 2024. The scientists acknowledged that this approach resulted in the inclusion of some studies that misused the term and the exclusion of those that might have met the criteria but were not self-labeled.
The work assessed whether current research trends emphasize zoonotic diseases, foodborne illnesses and antimicrobial resistance, as has been the case historically, or whether there is now a more holistic understanding of the concept.
Although there were articles that focused on pesticides and mycotoxins, the volume was too small to be identified by the topic modeling algorithm. The number of publications related to these two topics between 2015 and 2024 was compared with the two areas identified by the topic model.
Researchers have found that the impact of pesticides and mycotoxins on food safety has a lower research impact compared to zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance.
The analysis showed that the topics identified as relevant for Action 4 focus almost entirely on foodborne diseases, while mycotoxins and pesticide residues are largely absent, despite their major impact on food and feed safety and trade.
Regional imbalance
These studies showed that food safety research is not receiving as much attention within One Health. However, there is growing recognition that environmental contamination with pathogens, heavy metals, pesticides and antimicrobial residues contributes to the emergence and spread of foodborne illnesses and AMR.
Food safety appears to be the focus of policy documents citing One Health studies in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden.
CABI said many of the studies focused on health issues in Africa and Asia, but were mostly conducted by researchers in Europe and North America.
Institutions in high-income countries have more power when it comes to shaping the One Health agenda, meaning that low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) may have difficulty setting research priorities that meet their specific needs and are instead forced to focus on issues that are considered globally significant.
Dr Danny Romney, study author and director of CABI's One Health Hub project, said: “Inequality and underrepresentation of researchers from low- and middle-income countries is a huge problem.
“Not only can they undermine interest in research, but they can also lead to research being ignored by local organizations or, in the worst case, creating resentment and mistrust among research communities.”
(To sign up for a free subscription to Safety News,Click here)
