Food and Microbes—the One Health Approach

Dear Colleagues,

“One Health” recognizes the interdependence between human, animal, and environmental health. It is a foundational concept for the food sector these days. Understanding and integrating this paradigm is critical for ensuring food safety, security, and sustainability in an increasingly complex and globalized world, where human societies face challenges related to climate change, societal conflicts, human and animal population dynamics, among others, requiring a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to food systems. Central to this understanding is the recognition of human food systems themselves as dynamic reservoirs for microbial pathogens, including zoonotic agents, and critically, for genetic determinants of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The food chain, from primary production to final consumption, represents a complex ecosystem where pathogens, as well as their genetic determinants of virulence and antimicrobial resistance, can persist, proliferate, and be transmitted.

Ultimately, the One Health approach provides a holistic framework for preventing foodborne illnesses, mitigating emerging threats, and fostering resilient food systems by comprehensively addressing their role as reservoirs. For food scientists, it signifies a shift from compartmentalized thinking to interdisciplinary collaboration with public health officials, veterinarians, environmental scientists, and agricultural specialists. In this perspective, embracing One Health is not merely best practice; it is essential for safeguarding public health and ensuring a sustainable future for global food security.

Therefore, we think that this is the right time to bring your individual works together into a Special Issue on this hot topic, to promote awareness and disseminate knowledge, leading to a better understanding of how the food sector can contribute to the One Health approach, what challenges it faces in this framework, and what its responsibilities are. We welcome submissions that address one or several of these aspects, either as review or research papers.

Dr. Maria de Lurdes Dapkevicius
Dr. Carlos Pinto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.