Precision food safety: A systems approach to food safety facilitated by genomics tools

Abstract

Genomics and related tools are beginning to have a tremendous impact on food safety by allowing for a more precise approach to pathogen detection, characterization, and identification. The data produced using these tools are expected to lead to a paradigm shift in modern food safety concepts with impacts similar to those facilitated through development of personalized medicine methods in human medicine. We hence envision a future of food safety that can be best described as "precision food safety". While precision food safety will employ a number of new approaches and methods, omics tools will play a particularly important role and will provide for improved and more precise food safety procedures, including increasingly accurate risk assessment that will support evidence-based food safety decision-making. This review will highlight examples where genomics-based precision food safety approaches will have a significant impact.