Food safety: how science protects consumer health
From food production to consumption, ANSES provides scientific expertise to ensure that food is as safe as possible. This includes developing analytical methods, conducting studies on the safety of novel foods, and monitoring food poisoning incidents. On World Food Safety Day, discover seven concrete actions taken by our scientists to protect consumer health.
From animals to humans: tracking Yersinia enterocolitica
My expertise on Yersinia enterocolitica, the third most common zoonotic agent responsible for foodborne infections, allows me to be responsive during investigations and surveillance.
Martine Denis, Research Project Director in the Poultry and Pork Products Hygiene and Quality Unit of the Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort Laboratory
Since 2007, my unit has been developing tools to detect and characterise the bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica in the pork industry. This pathogen, which causes gastroenteritis, is the third leading bacterial cause of food poisoning in Europe, after Campylobacter and Salmonella. Pigs are the animals most frequently infected with this bacterium. A few years ago, my team and I conducted a study on Yersinia enterocolitica contamination of pork meat and cuts.
In 2024, our unit was called upon to investigate cases of Yersinia enterocolitica infection linked to the consumption of raw milk cheese. We analysed samples taken by cheese companies from cheese and surfaces, as well as those taken by the departmental directorates for population protection in livestock farms. ANSES and the National Reference Centre for Plague and Other Yersinioses then sequenced the Yersinia enterocolitica strains isolated from the cheeses and human infections, confirming that the cheeses were the source of the infections.
New foods, new risks?
I am coordinating a project to assess the risks of staphylococcal food poisoning in new plant-based foods.
Yacine Nia, Deputy Head of the Staphylococcus, Bacillus and Clostridium unit in ANSES’s Food Safety Laboratory
With the rise of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products, it is essential to identify the associated health risks. However, these are still poorly understood.
For example, the risks of collective food poisoning outbreaks linked to Staphylococcus aureus, which produces toxins, are difficult to assess in plant-based products.
There are two main reasons for this. The first is that the conditions for the growth and production of Staphylococcus aureus toxins in plant-based foods, with or without competing microorganisms, have not yet been documented. The second is that there is no validated method for detecting enterotoxins produced by staphylococci in these new plant-based products, whether they are well-known or newly described enterotoxins.
The SaToRix project, which I coordinate and which is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), aims to assess the risks posed by staphylococci and their toxins in these new foods. We plan to study the toxinogenic capabilities of Staphylococcus aureus and develop appropriate analytical methods. The results of the ANR SaToRix project will enable us to better assess one of the health risks associated with these new food ranges, provide new tools for identifying enterotoxins that are still poorly documented, and enhance the safety of these new products.
Understanding the origin of viruses in food
My job, at the crossroads between research, assessment and surveillance, allows me to actively contribute to the fight against food-related viral outbreaks.
Sandra Martin-Latil, Research Project Director in the Virology Unit of the Laboratory for Animal Health (LSAN)
To better understand viral risk, we are developing methods to identify viral agents and study their persistence in water, food and animals. These methods also enable us to validate the effectiveness of technological processes used in the agri-food industry to eliminate viruses in food.
Together with my colleagues, we are conducting research to estimate the prevalence of viruses, study their pathogenicity and their routes of dissemination. My work has focused on viral agents of major interest in food safety, such as the norovirus and hepatitis A virus. Since 2023, my research has focused on emerging zoonotic viral agents, such as hepatitis E virus, SARS-CoV-2, and more recently tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). Although TBEV is mainly transmitted by tick bites, it poses an emerging risk in food virology, as it can be transmitted through the consumption of raw milk products. My research is essential to understanding the origin of transmission and better preventing it.
Detecting foods containing illegal substances
It's exciting to think that monitoring food poisoning allows us to take concrete action to protect the population.
Sandra Sinno Tellier, Deputy Director of the Health Alerts & Vigilance Department and Toxicovigilance Coordinator
My job is to monitor poisonings, some of which involve foodstuffs that have been “adulterated” with illegally added pharmaceutical substances. Many poisonings, some of them serious, are reported to us by the poison control centres. Certain products, marketed as “natural,” actually contain medicinal substances. For example, some aphrodisiac honeys, purchased in shops or online, actually contain sildenafil, an active ingredient reserved for prescription drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction. In other cases, slimming teas contain sibutramine, formerly prescribed for weight loss and now banned.
We alerted the Directorate General for Food, customs, and the French Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM), which were then able to inform consumers about these food products that pose a risk of serious heart or vascular problems, remove them from the market, and even dismantle organised trafficking networks.
Vigilance remains essential as we are faced with the emergence of new illicit products.
New methods for measuring water quality
I study bacteriophages to assess the microbiological quality of water.
Thierry Chesnot, Deputy Head of the Water Microbiology Unit at the Nancy Laboratory for Hydrology
Until recently, the assessment of the microbiological quality of water was based mainly on the counting of indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci in particular). The recent addition of bacteriophage monitoring to surveillance strategies as an indicator of viral contamination represents a real breakthrough.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. The behaviour of some of them is similar to that of the viruses responsible for most viral gastroenteritis found in water. Their quantification by analytical laboratories makes it possible to assess the risk of pathogenic viruses surviving after water purification treatments, or those applied to wastewater before it is used (for crop irrigation for example). Our team evaluates the different analytical methods used to count bacteriophages in water.
Another reason we study these phages is that their presence in groundwater is considered a good indicator of the vulnerability of these waters to fecal contamination, which could seep in from the surface. More precise analyses, down to the genome level, can help identify whether this contamination is of human or animal origin. Bacteriophages therefore appear to be a very versatile indicator.
Towards a more sustainable food supply
A more sustainable and risk-free food supply is possible, and we are contributing to it one ingredient at a time.
Petru Jitaru, Head of the Trace Elements and Nanomaterials Unit at the ANSES Laboratory for Food Safety (LSAL)
Every day, tons of residues known as co-products, such as potato peelings, fish skins and bones, and oilseed residues, are thrown away in the agri-food industry, even though they could still be used to feed us. The Up4Food project (Upcycling side-streams for sustainable and healthy ingredients and new food concepts ), in which our unit is participating, aims to give these forgotten resources a second life, to create new foods that are good for our health — and for the planet!
This project brings together researchers from five countries (France, Norway, Ireland, Poland, and Romania), who are working hand in hand with stakeholders in the food chain and with citizens. The objective is to:
- Create new products from these “secondary flows”;
- Develop simple tools to promote them;
- Assess their impact on health, the environment, and society.
Our unit plays a key role in this: verifying the quality and safety of these alternative raw materials, as well as the ingredients derived from them.
To do this, we use cutting-edge technologies such as mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to analyse with extreme precision toxic trace elements such as lead, cadmium, mercury, aluminium, and arsenic, which are particularly harmful to health.
Nitrates, nitrites: what is the level of exposure?
We have assessed the population's exposure to nitrates and nitrites in food.
Géraldine Carne, Nawel Bemrah, and Laurent Guillier, scientists in the Food Risk Assessment Unit of ANSES’s Risk Assessment Department
In 2022, we conducted a major study on nitrates and nitrites in food, which are a significant concern for society. The study found that two-thirds of the population's exposure to nitrates comes from vegetables, a quarter from drinking water, and less than 4% from additives in processed meats. For nitrites, processed meats remain the main source of exposure.
Analysis of the scientific literature confirmed a link between exposure to nitrates/nitrites and the risk of colorectal cancer, particularly through processed meat or water. Associations with other cancers are suspected, but there is no formal proof to date.
Although 99% of the French population remains below toxicological thresholds, we have recommended limiting the use of nitrites and nitrates in food, according to the “as low as reasonably achievable” principle. The addition of these compounds to cured meats is intended to limit the growth of bacteria. We have identified concrete strategies, to be adapted according to the products, in order to reduce their use. We also pointed out that plant extracts, presented as an alternative, also provide nitrates that are converted into nitrites.
We emphasised the importance of improved agricultural practices to reduce the presence of nitrates and nitrites in water. It was also important to remind consumers to limit their consumption of cured meats to 150 g per week and to diversify their consumption of vegetables.