Linking food waste prevention, energy consumption and microbial food safety: the next challenge of food policy?

Food safety has governed food policy for decades. More recently, concerns about sustainability of food chains have emerged. Food sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue because food systems are not sustainable in terms of consumption of resources, their impact on ecosystems or their effect on health and social equality. A focus is given on how microbial food safety, energy consumption and food waste impact food policy. Potential contradictions between the different aspects of food policy are also reviewed and discussed.