Here at the Quadram Institute, funded by BBSRC and the Food Standards Agency, we host the Food Safety Research Network (FSRN), an innovation hub which connects food industry, food and health policymakers and academia pursuing shared research priorities on current and upcoming food safety challenges.

The FSRN recently celebrated its third year, during which time it has established itself as an important national driver of food safety research.

We explore key topics and considerations in food safety to help protect the UK from foodborne hazards.

A is for antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is when microbes become resistant to the medicines we use to control them.

Studying AMR requires advanced genomic techniques to track how resistant microbes emerge, evolve and spread in the food chain. If we identify what drives AMR, we can determine where interventions are most likely to have an impact.

The Quadram Institute is part of the management team behind AMAST – the AMR in Agrifood Systems Transdisciplinary Network. The AMAST network, funded by UKRI, aims to understand and tackle how antimicrobial resistance impacts UK food production from farm to fork.

B is for biofilm

Biofilms are communities of microbes that live and stick together on surfaces. The sticky layer of slime when food has spoiled is a biofilm.

Microbes within biofilms can have positive or negative impacts on our health. Some bacteria in biofilms may be better able to survive cleaning or disinfection, which has strong implications across the food chain.

At the Quadram Institute we use microbiology, genomics, bioinformatics and mathematical modelling to understand microbial behaviour and interactions within these biofilms and improve food safety.

We are also active members of the National Biofilms Innovation Centre which is facilitating collaboration on biofilm research.

C is for Campylobacter

Campylobacter is a resilient, corkscrew-shaped microbe that causes foodborne illness in humans.

Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK, with symptoms like abdominal pain, fever and diarrhoea.

Infections occur when we eat undercooked poultry, especially chicken. Always cook poultry to an internal temperature of at least 70°C to reduce risk of illness.

We use advanced molecular biology techniques and DNA sequencing technologies to detect where Campylobacter lives and how it spreads in the food chain.

D is for detection

Quickly detecting microbes across the food chain can be difficult.

New technologies using audio sensors, gold nanotechnology and fibre optic sensors may help efficiently detect microbes in food.

Other techniques include metagenomics – analysing all the DNA in a food sample and filtering out food DNA to detect microbes.

F is for frozen produce

Frozen vegetables like corn, peas and carrots are highly nutritious but are not always considered ready-to-eat and should be fully cooked, following the advice on the packaging, or use canned versions of the same vegetable.

Read more about the food safety of frozen produce on the Food Standard’s Agency website.

G is for genomics

Sequencing microbes’ genomes determines genetic information.

This reveals clues about the identity of microbes, their potential to cause illness and how they spread and evolve through the food chain.

We use advanced genomic techniques, including developing novel sequencing and bioinformatic techniques, to understand these clues.

H is for home

Food safety in the home is important.

Common risky home cooking behaviours include misuse of tea towels and use of mobile devices like phones during food preparation.

Changing our behaviour at home can improve food safety. The FSRN’s newest priority area tackles how to improve food safety practices at home.

I is for illness

The global burden of foodborne illness is significant, causing an estimated 420,000 deaths and 600 million cases of illness each year. This has significant economic repercussions.

Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or fever.

Here at the Quadram Institute our Microbes and Food Safety research programme aims to reduce human foodborne illness through improved food safety.

J is for juices

Juices from food can leak in the fridge and while we cook. This allows microbes to spread between foods, surfaces and equipment. This is called cross-contamination.

Always keep meats on the bottom shelf of your fridge to prevent juices – microbial ‘highways’ – from leaking onto fresh produce.

K is for kitchen

Kitchens can be breeding grounds for microbes.

Ensure yours isn’t by washing your hands well and being mindful of your fridge use: keep doors closed, temperatures cool and stop overcrowding.

The FSRN funds research into smart sinks that could encourage good handwashing techniques in the kitchen.

L is for Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria is a disease-causing foodborne bacterium that can grow at cool temperatures.

This microbe causes serious illness in vulnerable people. Sources include refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods like sandwiches, deli meats and smoked salmon.

To reduce the risk of illness, chill your food below 5°C and eat ready-to-eat foods within 4 hours of removal from the fridge.

There is a rich history of Listeria research here in Norwich. Dr Barbara Lund’s group – then at the Institute of Food Research, now the Quadram Institute – collected Listeria strains that are still used today to understand how Listeria is evolving.

M is for monitoring

Both foodborne illness cases and the microbes responsible are monitored. Food poisoning is a notifiable disease. This means cases are reported to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to prevent and track outbreaks.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) also studies food-specific outbreaks. PhD student Sam joined the FSA on his PIPS placement, reviewing four microbes associated with foodborne disease.

We’ve also collaborated with UKHSA on cases of enteric fever in the UK over the past 20 years, helping identify specific cases for further analysis. Healthy carriers can spread the disease, especially if they work within the food sector.

N is for noroviruses

Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause the vomiting bug.

They survive in food but can’t make more of themselves. It’s a very contagious but short-lived infection that causes vomiting and diarrhoea.

Young children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk.

O is for One Health

One Health is an integrated approach spanning the health of humans, other animals and the environment, and views them as connected.

The food supply chain involves all three, so good food safety needs solutions encompassing the whole food ecosystem.

P is for phages

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria.

Using these phages could safely decontaminate food in the supply chain. Applications include reducing microbial risks in raw pet food and preventing outbreaks in aquaculture.

At the Quadram Institute, we study phages both in the lab and computationally, to formulate better combinations of phages to keep our food safe to eat.

Q is for quantitative analysis

Good food safety requires analysis of microbes and their evolving characteristics across the food chain.

Techniques include genomics (looking at entire genomes), metagenomics (looking at all the genomes within a sample) and bioinformatics.

R is for ready-to-eat

Ready-to-eat foods are not cooked or reheated before eating, like ham, sandwiches, salads and desserts.

Remember to separate ready-to-eat foods from raw products and keep cool.

A FSRN project is elucidating why ready-to-eat ham changes colour in spoilage and which microbes are responsible.

S is for Salmonella

Salmonella are a group of microbes that cause food poisoning.

They’re found in animal guts and contaminate food during rearing and processing in food production.

Undercooking meat and drinking raw milk are the main reasons for illness.

We collaborate with partners to better understand dangerous Salmonella like Salmonella Dublin found in cattle, which is showing antimicrobial resistance.

T is for training

Everyone along the food supply chain is responsible for ensuring good food safety. From produce growers to home cooks, training for all is key.

As well as training produce growers, the FSRN is supporting a project using behavioural science to provide guidance on food safety skills for home cooks.

U is for use-by date

Food labelling is key to good food safety and limiting food waste. Use-by dates are about safety while best before dates are about quality.

Don’t eat food past use-by dates, even if it looks and smells okay. You can eat food past best before dates but it won’t be at its best.

Follow the Food Standards Agency’s guidance on use-by-dates.

V is for vegetarians and vegans

New plant-based foods and alternative proteins are emerging. So too are the safety risks and vulnerabilities of these new products and processes.

Food safety must evolve alongside sustainable diets. To address this growing food safety gap, a FSRN project is identifying the risks associated with new food production processes like cellular agriculture.

W is for waste

Food spoilage changes the appearance, smell, texture and taste of food. This leads to food waste.

However, the microbes responsible for spoilage are different from those causing food poisoning.

One of our key research targets is to develop ways to suppress food spoilage microbes in the food chain safely and sustainably and avoid exacerbating antimicrobial resistance.

X is for xerophiles

Some foodborne microbes can evade common preservation techniques like canning, freezing and drying.

Xerophiles survive dry conditions. Spoilage of bakery products may be linked to these microbes.

Y is for Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia enterocolitica is a disease-causing foodborne microbe that causes yersiniosis. Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting.

Foods that can be contaminated with Yersinia include raw meat and seafood, dairy products and fresh produce.

Our research suggests that Yersinia are more prevalent on supermarket foods than other well-known foodborne bacteria, and are an underappreciated threat to food safety.

Z is for zoonosis

Zoonosis is an infection in animals that can be transmitted to humans by eating raw or undercooked meat, poultry or seafood contaminated with disease-causing microbes.

They enter the body in the gastrointestinal tract, where symptoms often occur first.

Many food poisoning cases stem from zoonotic microbes that have ‘jumped’ from animals to humans. Our research is helping to decipher some of these microbes, key for food safety.