Cogent Food & Agriculture

Emerging Food Safety Risks and Contaminants in Sustainable Food Systems

The global food system faces unprecedented challenges from emerging contaminants and evolving safety risks that threaten human health, environmental integrity, and food security. The term “emerging contaminants” describes a diverse group of substances, including pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, microbial toxins, and nanomaterials. Due to their chemical and physical properties, many of these emerging contaminants (e.g., PFAS, microplastics) tend to bioaccumulate and resist biodegradation, thus increasing the risk of polluting food sources over extended periods.

Simultaneously, climate change is intensifying contamination risks through extreme weather events, altered precipitation patterns, and temperature shifts that favor microbial proliferation and mycotoxin production. Antimicrobial resistance, driven by agricultural antibiotic use and environmental selection pressures, further complicates food safety management across the food-animal-human interface. Novel production technologies, including alternative proteins and circular economy practices, introduce additional unknowns regarding contamination pathways.

Compared to traditional pollutants, emerging contaminants are generally not regulated and monitored by government agencies. These substances enter food chains through contaminated water, soil, air, crops, and livestock with limited regulatory oversight due to insufficient toxicological and environmental data. The lack of extensive regulatory frameworks for these contaminants stems from insufficient data regarding their environmental and health repercussions. Ingestion of contaminated water, crops, and livestock exposed to emerging contaminants remains an important route of human exposure. Therefore, a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach, such as the One Health framework, is crucial to effectively address the public health threats posed by newly identified or reemerging environmental pollutants.

Despite increasing awareness, critical gaps remain in our understanding of emerging contaminants in food systems, particularly regarding their long-term impacts on ecosystem health, food security, and the sustainability of agricultural practices. Therefore, we welcome original research papers, reviews, and data notes that deepen scientific understanding of the nature, scope, and impacts of contaminants of emerging concern and advance understanding of emerging food safety risks within sustainable food systems in the human-animal-environment interface. Current topics considered for publication may include, but are not limited to:

• Emerging biological, chemical, and environmental hazards in food systems
• Climate change and environmental influences on food contamination
• Antimicrobial resistance and microbial adaptation in food environments
• Novel detection, surveillance, and monitoring technologies
• Risk assessment and predictive modeling
• Food processing and mitigation strategies
• Sustainable agriculture and contaminant transfer through the food chain
• Regulatory, policy, and One Health perspectives
• Food system resilience and supply-chain safety challenges

Keywords: Emerging contaminants, Climate change, Food safety, Food systems, supply chain resilience

Guest Advisors:

Prof. Luis Sabillón-Galeas Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. His research program aims to improve the microbiological safety of food products by contributing to the understanding of pathogen ecology and by developing antimicrobial intervention strategies along the farm-to-table continuum. Here is the link to his ORCID page: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1487-4684

Disclosure statement: The Guest Advisor declares no conflict of interest.

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer-review as part of our standard editorial process; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope  and author submission instructions  prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is July 31st, 2027.

Please contact Ruby Ru at ruby.ru@taylorandfrancis.com  with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

To submit your papers to this Article Collection, please:

1. Check "yes" for the question, "Are you submitting your paper for a specific special issue or article collection?"
2. Select the relevant Article Collection from the drop-down menu under the question, "Special Issue or Article Collection Name."