These were introduced in the wake of the mad cow disease scandal in the 90s'. Now, horse meat sold as beef in minced meat products and ready-made meals has revealed that traceability can only do so much for consumer reassurance.

youris.com talks to Clare Hall, social science researcher at the Scottish Agricultural College in Edinburgh, UK, about the best ways to effectively inform the public about food safety in relation to pathogens responsible for foodborne diseases.

Marek Zadernowski is a consultant, specialist in quality management and safety in a food sector, based in Olsztyn, Poland. He is a member of Polish Association of Food Technologists and a fellow of the  UK Royal Society of Public Health .

A French veterinary surgeon and former researcher at the Toulouse National Veterinary School , Philippe Baralon is the founder of Phylum , a consultancy specialised in food safety working for the food industry.

Ragnar Löfstedt is an expert on risk management at King’s College London , UK, and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Risk Research . He spoke to youris.

Mona Elena Popa, is Professor of industrial biotechnology at the  University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest  in Romania. She talks to youris.

Alex Richardson, is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention , at the University of Oxford, UK, and the co-founder of the UK charity Food and Behaviour Research.

Several hundred thousands of Europeans are affected by food borne diseases every year . Only a shift in perception of how food safety should be achieved could help avoid these illnesses.

The importance of healthy eating for our well-being is scientifically proven and having a varied diet goes without saying.

Industrial food treatment processes need to tackle bacteria that can spoil food . These microorganisms, although non-pathogenic, can make food products unpalatable and affect how long they can be stored for.

Food borne botulism is a rare, but potentially fatal disease. According to the World Health Organisation the toxins that cause the illness are some of the most lethal substances known.

Consumption of seafood is regarded as healthy since it contains high quality proteins, vitamins and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. But it might also put us at risk of exposure to environmental pollutants.

If aliens were to examine a human, they would think we were just slavish organisms designed to feed microbes and carry them around. Our bodies contain ten times more bacteria than cells , and there are an estimated 3.

About 75% of the new diseases that have affected humans over the past 10 years have developed from animals or products of animal origin.

Whenever you eat strawberries, does your throat start to swell and itch? Do you also get a burning or prickling sensation in your lips, gums, tongue or inside your cheeks? Or perhaps drinking milk ...

In Europe, the population is ageing . In 2010, about 17% of the population were 65 or older. This number is projected to increase to 30% of the population by 2060. New services are already available to meet their needs.

Seafood sometimes poses health risks to consumers. Unfortunately, these are not very well defined. What is more, the risks associated with non-regulated contaminants, responsible for such health hazards, are not all well understood.