Editorial: Determinants and implications of food contaminants: intersections of socioeconomic status, environmental exposure, and public health
Résumé
Food contamination remains a major public-health, environmental and equity concern. Contaminants enter food systems through polluted soils and water, unsafe agricultural inputs, inadequate storage, poor food handling, weak regulatory oversight and wider socioeconomic inequalities. The papers in this Research Topic collectively show that food safety cannot be understood only through laboratory detection of hazards. It must also be interpreted through the social, environmental and institutional conditions that determine who is exposed, how often exposure occurs and whether affected communities can access safer alternatives.This collection brings together evidence on chemical contaminants, microbial hazards, antimicrobial resistance, food-safety culture, post-harvest protection and governance. Its overall contribution lies in showing that food contamination is both a scientific and social problem. Effective prevention therefore requires integrated monitoring, source control, risk assessment, fair governance and One Health-oriented public-health action.Several studies in the Research Topic examined how environmental contamination affects food systems. Alarifi et al. assessed heavy metal(loid) levels in agricultural soils in Huraymla, Saudi Arabia, demonstrating the value of geospatial and multivariate approaches for identifying contamination patterns relevant to sustainable agriculture and food-supply protection. Sanad et al. extended this theme through a systematic review of trace metal accumulation in Mediterranean horticultural production systems, linking contamination to irrigation water, agrochemical use, organic amendments and protected cultivation practices.Jack and Izah provided a Nigerian example by assessing trace metal contamination and health risks associated with edible land snails, Achatina achatina, in Yenagoa Metropolis. Their findings reinforce the importance of monitoring locally consumed foods, particularly where communities depend on wild or semi-wild species that may bioaccumulate pollutants from degraded environments. These contributions align with earlier One Health-oriented work on trace metal risk assessment, aquatic ecosystem management and the application of multivariate and reliability analyses to toxic-element exposure (Izah et al., 2023(Izah et al., , 2024)).The collection also highlights the continuing burden of microbial contamination and antimicrobial resistance in food systems. Mwangi et al. reported Campylobacter contamination in broiler carcasses and on-farm slaughter environments in peri-urban Kenya, together with hygiene-related risk factors, virulence markers and antimicrobial-resistance genes. Motlhaoloa et al. reviewed the distribution and antimicrobial resistance of Enterobacteriaceae in food sources in South Africa, showing that foods can serve as reservoirs for resistant organisms of public-health importance.These studies show that microbial hazards are shaped by farm practices, slaughter hygiene, water quality, market environments, food handling and antimicrobial-use patterns. They also support the need for integrated surveillance linking food microbiology, environmental health, animal production and clinical/public-health laboratories. In this sense, antimicrobial resistance in food systems is not only a food-safety problem but a One Health security concern.Food contamination prevention also depends on storage technologies, organizational culture and fairness in governance. Al-Solami et al. examined microwave heating and cold plasma as residue-free strategies for controlling wheat beetles while preserving grain antioxidant quality. This work illustrates how non-chemical technologies may support safer post-harvest protection where conventional fumigation raises health, residue or regulatory concerns.Chen approached food safety from the perspective of organizational behaviour by examining the synergistic role of spirituality and safety climate in food-service organizations. This contribution is important because safe food handling depends not only on rules, but also on values, leadership, responsibility and shared safety culture. Qi et al. further broadened the governance dimension by evaluating fairness in collaborative food-safety governance in Jilin Province, China. Their findings indicate that food-safety protection may vary across social and spatial groups, making equity a central component of effective governance.Together, the papers demonstrate that food contaminants arise through connected environmental, biological, technological and socioeconomic pathways. This supports earlier work emphasizing detection, risk analysis and monitoring of chemical contaminants in agroaqua food systems (Ogwu et al., 2024a), as well as broader discussions of food safety and quality in the Global South (Ogwu et al., 2024b(Ogwu et al., , 2024c)).Future research should move beyond single-contaminant and single-matrix designs. Studies should connect soils, water, crops, livestock, seafood, markets, ready-to-eat foods and human exposure data. They should also include socioeconomic indicators such as income, occupation, rural-urban location, food-source dependence, sanitation access and regulatory visibility. This is particularly important in low-and middle-income settings where informal markets, local harvesting, limited laboratory capacity and unequal access to safe food alternatives may intensify exposure.This Research Topic shows that food contamination is produced at the intersection of environment, food systems, behaviour, technology and governance. Protecting public health therefore requires more than testing food at the point of sale. It requires pollution prevention, safer production systems, improved storage, stronger microbial and chemical surveillance, responsible antimicrobial use, effective risk communication and equitable regulatory action. A One Health approach provides the most practical framework for connecting these priorities and reducing foodborne risks in ways that are scientifically robust, socially fair and environmentally sustainable.
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