Food Safety News and Research

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Organic Flour May Contain Fewer Pesticides, but What About Other Contaminants?

Researchers testing 96 wheat flours sold in France found pesticide residues or a pesticide synergist in 26% of samples and at least one mycotoxin in 76%, with seven recorded exceedances of European reference thresholds. Conventional flours were more likely to contain pesticide residues, while organic flours had higher concentrations of several mycotoxins and trace metals, raising questions about food safety across different farming and processing systems.

22 Oct 2026

New DNA Test Detects Listeria in Ice Cream and Reveals How It Survives Freezing

Researchers developed a PMA-ddPCR assay to detect and quantify potentially viable Listeria monocytogenes in ice cream, identifying the pathogen in two of 500 commercial samples and demonstrating good agreement with conventional culture-based measurements. The method also supported predictive models of bacterial growth under different temperature conditions, while experiments showed that the pathogen could survive 240 days of frozen storage without substantial changes in population levels.

21 Oct 2026

Scientists Analyzed 28,724 Food Safety Alerts and Found a Surprising Limit to AI

Researchers analyzed 28,724 European food safety notifications from 2019 to 2025 and found that accounting for the direction of country-to-country alert links improved predictions, while more complex machine learning models offered little additional benefit. Simpler network measures performed just as well at identifying future notification links, highlighting the importance of careful model evaluation and targeted food safety surveillance.

21 Oct 2026

Fuse Diagnostics Raises £1 Million to Scale Rapid Point-of-Need Molecular Testing Platform

Fuse Diagnostics (“Fuse”), a developer of next-generation molecular diagnostics for point-of-need testing, today announced it has raised £1 million to accelerate commercialization of its proprietary Flip™ product platform and expand manufacturing capabilities at its headquarters in Cambridge, UK.

16 Sep 2026

Fruit Fly Olfactory Processing Inspires Energy Efficient Scent Classification Algorithms

In the animal kingdom, energy conservation is essential for survival. That's why our brains have evolved to be extremely energy and resource efficient at storing and processing information.

25 Aug 2026

Can Everyday Supplements Lead to Failed Anti-Doping Tests?

Researchers developed a high-throughput LC-MS/MS platform that screened 331 pharmacologically active compounds and quantitatively validated 214 analytes across representative food matrices. Applied to 78 commercial foods and supplements, the framework showed that some products could produce modeled urinary concentrations exceeding WADA reporting thresholds under realistic intake scenarios.

19 May 2026

X-Ray Finds Hidden Metal in Beef Where Metal Detectors and Ultrasound Fall Short

X-ray imaging detected all ten embedded metallic objects across tested beef tissue depths and muscle states, outperforming both traditional metal detection and ultrasound. Metal detection worked mainly for larger, shallower objects, while ultrasound showed limited value for detecting foreign metallic materials in beef carcasses.

13 May 2026

Twisted Light Breakthrough Could Enable Earlier Disease Detection

Researchers from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (COMBS) have developed a powerful new way to use light to measure tiny changes in biological fluids such as blood – using samples as small as a millionth of a drop.

12 May 2026

Novel Phage W5 Offers a Sustainable Solution for Foodborne Salmonella

Researchers from China have identified a novel bacteriophage that offers a highly promising "green" biocontrol solution against foodborne Salmonella.

27 Mar 2026

High-Tech Imaging Unlocks Genetic Secrets Of Nutrient-Rich Seeds

By rapidly analyzing nearly 12,000 individual seeds, the approach uncovers genetic loci that simultaneously influence seed morphology and mineral composition, opening new avenues for crop biofortification and safer food production.

7 Jan 2026

Serum-Free Media Enables Scalable Cultured Meat From Muscle Stem Cells

The production of cultured meat depends on the isolation, expansion, and differentiation of animal stem cells into edible tissues.

12 Dec 2025

Nearly 1/3 of Pesticides and Industrial Chemicals Harm Gut Bacteria

A study reveals that common pesticides and industrial chemicals inhibit gut bacteria, highlighting risks to health and the need for revised safety assessments.

5 Dec 2025

Rhizosphere Metabolites Play Key Role in Regulating the Distribution of Antibiotic Resistance Genes

Their study reveals that rhizosphere metabolites-substances secreted by plant roots-play a crucial role in regulating the distribution of manure-derived ARGs in both the soil and plant tissues.

27 Oct 2025

Nanoplastics Can Cross Plant Root Barriers and Enter Food

Polystyrene nanoplastics were found to translocate in radishes, suggesting a pathway for human dietary exposure and emphasizing the need for safety strategies.

24 Sep 2025

Chromatin Accessibility Shapes Growth and Stress Response in Blue Mold

Blue mold, caused by Penicillium expansum, is one of the most destructive postharvest diseases, leading to economic losses across fruit supply chains.

23 Sep 2025

New Genomic Analysis Platform Launched for Tracking for Zoonotic Pathogens

Zoonotic pathogens, capable of crossing between animals and humans, pose escalating threats due to antimicrobial resistance, genetic diversification, and complex transmission patterns.

11 Sep 2025

New Atomic Force Microscopy Reveals Biofilm Architecture

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have reimagined the capabilities of atomic force microscopy, or AFM, transforming it from a tool for imaging nanoscale features into one that also captures large-scale biological architecture.

6 Aug 2025