Food Safety & Food Defense Archives - World Food Policy Center

E261: Here’s what you don’t know about food safety

January 23, 2025

For many years in talks that I gave, I showed a slide with an ingredient list from a food most people know. Just to see if the audience could guess what the food was, based on what it was made of. It was very hard for people to guess. A few people might come close, but very few people would guess. And it was pretty hard because the food contained 56 ingredients. This is in one food. And the ingredient list had chemical names, flavorings, stabilizers, and heaven knows what else. But 56 things in one, just one food in the food supply. Pretty amazing to think what kind of things we’re bombarded with in foods we eat in our everyday lives. So, one key question is do we know what all this stuff does to us, either individually or in combination? So, how does ingredient 42 interact with ingredient 17? Even if we happen to know what they do individually, which we may not. And, who’s looking out for the health of the population, and who has regulatory control over these things? Today we’re joined by the author of a new article on this topic published in the American Journal of Public Health. Jennifer Pomeranz is an attorney and is Associate Professor of Public Health Policy and Management in the School of Global Public Health at New York University. The food, by the way, was a chocolate fudge Pop Tart.

E258: Do ‘market driven epidemics’ drive your food choices?

December 18, 2024

For much of history, the word ‘epidemic’ applied to infectious diseases. Large numbers of cases of disease caused by organisms such as bacteria and viruses that spread through water, air, or other means, sometimes transmitted from person to person, or back and forth between people and animals. Then came epidemics of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease – diseases occurring in very large numbers and created not by infectious agents, but by drivers in our day to day lives, such as a bad food environment. A new paper was just published in the PLOS global health literature that I found fascinating. It focuses on another use of the concept of epidemics: market driven epidemics. Let’s find out what these are and find out a little bit more about their implications for our health and wellbeing. Our guests today are two of the authors of that paper. Dr. Jonathan Quick is a physician and expert on global health and epidemics. He is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute. Eszter Rimanyi joins us as well. She works on chronic disease and addiction epidemiology at Duke university.

E255: Reducing food waste: Less seafood wasted than thought in US

November 18, 2024

The U. S. is the largest importer of aquatic foods, which includes fresh and saltwater fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and aquatic plants served in restaurants and homes. A critical piece of this global market is the cold chain, keeping these foods chilled or frozen during storage and transport to market. With 44 percent of aquatic foods sold live or fresh globally, the percentage of fresh over frozen aquatic foods creates an extra logistical cold chain challenge. What’s more, most aquatic foods become, well, fishy from cold chain disruptions, which can cause perceived food safety concerns, potentially resulting in food getting tossed into the bin. Until recently, research to understand just how much aquatic food gets wasted or lost has been spotty. However, in a recent Nature Food article, researchers argue that aquatic food loss and waste in the United States is actually half of earlier estimates. And that’s good news that we’ll explore today. This interview is part of an ongoing exploration of food loss and waste.

E252: Is farm-level environmental impact reporting needed or even possible?

October 22, 2024

In today’s podcast, we’re discussing Fast and Furious. But it’s not the movie series starring Vin Diesel. Instead, the catchphrase describes rapidly increasing and somewhat confusing food system environmental impact reporting. Food firms, farmers, and governments all have a clear need for more quantitative environmental impact data in order to measure and understand factors such as carbon footprint, sustainable agricultural practices, and food supply chain processes. But there is no single standard for such reporting and different measurement methodologies make it difficult to assess progress. What’s more, greater transparency regarding environmental impacts and food systems will affect trade and supply chains. Our guest today is Koen Deconinck from the Trade and Agricultural Directorate of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD for short.

E229: From label to table: Regulating food in America

February 14, 2024

How did the Nutrition Facts label come to appear on millions of food products in the U.S.? As Auburn University historian, Xaq Frohlich, reveals in his new book, “From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age,” these seemingly innocuous strips of information reveal the high stakes politics that can help determine what we eat and why. In today’s podcast, Frohlich will explore popular ideas about food, diet, and responsibility for health that have influenced what goes on the Nutrition Facts panel and who gets to decide that.

Related podcasts: Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Food Policy | Food Safety & Food Defense | History & Food |

E225: Efficient Food Recovery and Waste Prevention – a Business Strategy

January 17, 2024

Our guest today is Jasmine Crowe-Houston, social entrepreneur, and founder of Goodr.co. Jasmine started her journey cooking soul food for hungry unhoused people in her kitchen in her one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. She fed upwards of 500 people a week for years with pop-up kitchens and parks and parking lots. Then in 2017, she founded Goodr, a technology-based food waste management company that connects firms with food surpluses to nonprofit organizations that can use the food. She has worked with organizations that have food waste issues, such as the Atlanta International Airport, Hormel Foods, and Turner Broadcasting. Today, Goodr has expanded nationwide and sponsors free grocery stores and schools. She has combined charity, innovation, and market-based solutions into a for-profit waste management company that Inc. Magazine called a rare triple win.

E223: Food Policy Lessons from Removing Trans Fats from our Diet

December 20, 2023

In August of 2023, the Food and Drug Administration issued something known as a direct final rule, disregarded trans fats in the food supply. Consumers won’t notice changes as the rule just finalizes FDA’s 2015 ruling that partially hydrogenated oils – trans fats – no longer had “GRAS status.” GRAS stands for generally regarded as safe. We cover this issue today because this trans fat ban was the product of lots of work by a key group of scientists, the advocacy community, and others. The anatomy of this process can teach us a lot about harnessing scientific discovery for social and policy change. At the center of all this is today’s guest, Dr. Walter Willett. Walter Willett is one of the world’s leading nutrition researchers. He is professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and for many years served as chair of its Department of Nutrition. He’s published extensively, been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and it turns out, is the world’s most cited nutrition researcher.

E210: Clinical Trial Evidence: Metabolic Effect of Sweeteners

July 24, 2023

Sugar replacements, known generally as artificial sweeteners or non-nutritive sweeteners, have been in the news a lot. Rising concerns exist about safety and the effects of the sweeteners on many key features of health, including the microbiome. We need the help of talented scientists to sort through this complex web of information. Today’s guest, Professor Eran Elinav, has done some of the seminal research in this area. He’s an expert on systems immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

E207: World Health Organization’s Recommendations on Non-Sugar Sweeteners

June 28, 2023

Today’s podcast is a continuation of our series exploring the safety of non-sugar sweeteners in both food and beverages. In 2022, the World Health Organization conducted a systematic review of the most current scientific evidence on the health effects of non-sugar sweeteners. This analysis of 283 studies reveals that non-sugar sweeteners can impact health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, adiposity, bladder cancer, and preterm birth. In 2023, the WHO released a guideline on the use of non-sugar sweeteners based on this 2022 review. Our guests today are Dr. Jason Montez, scientist with the World Health Organization, and technical lead on the systematic review and guideline. And, the director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the World Health Organization, Dr. Francesco Branca.

E205: Here’s what sugar and zero-calorie sweeteners do to your body

May 17, 2023

Today we speak with an expert on sugar and things meant to replace it. The stakes are high. Very high. Sugar consumption in the population is astronomical and so is the use of sugar replacements. Knowing the impacts of both could help experts provide dietary guidance and help consumers make decisions. Dr. Robert Lustig is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. He specializes on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system; body weight regulation, appetite, metabolism, and is very well known for his work on sugar and their substitutes and on policies aimed at improving the diet of the population. A YouTube video on the effects of consuming sugar called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” has now been viewed 24 million times.

Podcast Topic: Food Safety & Food Defense

The Leading Voices in Food

Podcast Topic: Food Safety & Food Defense

E261: Here’s what you don’t know about food safety

E258: Do ‘market driven epidemics’ drive your food choices?

E255: Reducing food waste: Less seafood wasted than thought in US

E252: Is farm-level environmental impact reporting needed or even possible?

E229: From label to table: Regulating food in America

E225: Efficient Food Recovery and Waste Prevention – a Business Strategy

E223: Food Policy Lessons from Removing Trans Fats from our Diet

E210: Clinical Trial Evidence: Metabolic Effect of Sweeteners

E207: World Health Organization’s Recommendations on Non-Sugar Sweeteners

E205: Here’s what sugar and zero-calorie sweeteners do to your body