The Role of Genomics in Food Quality and Safety Management: Possibilities and Limitations

Food quality and safety management is constantly evolving, perhaps most notably in the past 100 years. This has been driven by many factors, including improvements in food production technologies, consumer demand, a globalization of food supply chains, and in particular, the development of modern food science and improvement of our knowledge on associated risks and best practices. Arguably the largest reformation of modern food safety and quality approaches is through the application of Next Generation Sequencing approaches. This article will discuss how recent advances in genomics technologies are driving developments in food systems, and consider key obstacles that must be addressed, in particular the development of standardized methods for implementation of these approaches to ensure they are robust and effective.