Background: The husbandry systems for laying hens were changed in Sweden during the years 2001 -2004, and an increase in the number of submissions for necropsy from laying hen farms was noted. Hence, this study was initiated to compare causes of mortality in different housing systems for commercial laying hens during this change.

The United Nations sustainable development goals include eradication of hunger. To feed 10 billion persons 2050, we need to get the trade-offs right between sustainability, food security, food safety, and make better use of food already produced. The hierarchy of strategies for reducing food losses and waste are in descending order source reduction, reusing or reprocessing surplus foods, recycle food as feed for animals, recover the energy as biofuels, nutrients as compost, or raw materials for industry, while as last resorts one may consider recovering the energy by incineration or dumping as garbage in landfills. This paper will explore the trade-offs inherent when aiming at triple goals of sustainability, food security, and safety looking at these strategies for reducing food losses and waste and resource footprints. Intensification of food production and circular food systems could be parts of these solutions to future food security. In this regard could our future trade-offs be informed by the experiences from the use of antimicrobials to intensify food production and from the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in terms of circular food production? There is no trade-off between intensification of food production aided by antimicrobials and the public health risks from antimicrobial resistance due to the zoo-technical use of antimicrobials. A sustainable future requires control of antimicrobial resistance. If one avoids that cycles of nutrients become cycles of pathogens and/or hazards, circular food production systems will a major contribution to the future sustainable food security. Source reduction i.e., limiting food losses and waste appears to the strategy most promising for achieving sustainability. By using artificial intelligence and intelligent packaging major progress is possible, with the added benefit of better control of food fraud. A changed diet-eating more plant-based foods and not eating animal protein produced by edible feedstuffs, and source reduction of the food lost or wasted should enable us to feed at least an additional billion persons. Solutions to sustainability and food security should integrate food safety considerations from the start.

Samples collected from 791 wild animals (Canada geese, roe deer, hares, moose, wild boar and gulls) shot during hunting were examined for verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) O157, and thermophilic Campylobacter and Salmonella species. With the exception of one positive isolate from a wild boar, VTEC O157 was not isolated from any of the animals. Salmonella species were isolated only from the gulls, of which 4 per cent were estimated to be positive. Thermophilic Campylobacter species were commonly isolated from all the species except deer.

This review discusses food safety aspects of importance from a One Health perspective, focusing on Europe. Using examples of food pathogen/food commodity combinations, spread of antimicrobial resistance in the food web and the risk of transmission of zoonotic pathogens in a circular system, it demonstrates how different perspectives are interconnected. The chosen examples all show the complexity of the food system and the necessity of using a One Health approach. Food safety resources should be allocated where they contribute most One Health benefits. Data on occurrence and disease burden and knowledge of source attribution are crucial in assessing costs and benefits of control measures. Future achievements in food safety, public health and welfare will largely be based on how well politicians, researchers, industry, national agencies and other stakeholders manage to collaborate using the One Health approach. It can be concluded that closer cooperation between different disciplines is necessary to avoid silo thinking when addressing important food safety challenges. The importance of this is often mentioned, but more proof of concept is needed by the research community.

Novel foods represent sustainable alternatives to traditional farming and conventional foodstuffs. The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is considered as one of the most promising reared insects due to their attractive nutritional profile and lower feed conversion ratio compared to other animals. However, putative health hazards associated with consumption of crickets have previously not been investigated. The present study assesses the risks of A. domesticus reared in closed systems controlled by the implementation of hazard analysis and critical control points and good farming practices. Due to the novelty of the topic, data scarcity has been a limiting factor, hence comparative evidence from closely related species belonging to the order Orthoptera (e.g. grasshoppers, locusts, and other cricket species) have been included. The present risk profile identified as main hazards: (1) high total counts of aerobic bacteria; (2) presence of spore-forming bacteria post thermal processing; (3) accumulation of cadmium and other heavy metals; and (4) a possible increase of allergenic reactions due to exposure to insects and insect derived products. Important data gaps regarding edible crickets and their safety as novel foods have been highlighted in the future perspective section, representing aims for future research. Identified data gaps include: (1) farming conditions of the insects being studied; (2) data on the impact of thermal processing of the products prior to consumption; (3) fungal communities and mycotoxins-producing fungi in reared crickets; and (4) heavy metals not fully assessed (chromium, aluminium and arsenic) and other chemical hazards produced during processing (i.e. heterocyclic aromatic amines, acrylamide). The present risk profile explores food safety risks related to consumption of A. domesticus, thereby constituting an example of chemical and microbial hazards risk profiling on edible insects, covering rearing to consumption.