Climate change: unpacking the burden on food safety (Food safety and quality series)

This book identifies and attempts to quantify some current and anticipated food safety issues that are associated with climate change, including foodborne pathogens and parasites, harmful algal blooms, pesticides, mycotoxins and heavy metals, with an emphasis on methylmercury. It proposes some forward-looking approaches to help build more resilient food systems. Increasing temperatures, ocean warming and acidification, severe droughts, wildfires, changing precipitation patterns and melting glaciers have direct implications for our food systems. While the impacts of such environmental factors on food security are well known, the effects on food safety receive less attention. By building a better understanding of the consequences of climate change for food safety and helping to reduce the global burden of these concerns, this document will contribute to stronger international cooperation in this area.