Canceled: Radically Rethinking Food Safety

This event has been canceled.

Another day, another food recall. It’s been more than 27 years since the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak sickened over 700 people in four states, led to 171 hospitalizations and resulted in four deaths. Despite the significant strengthening of food safety laws in the ensuing two and a half decades, the United States has seen notable increases in the types and modes of food contamination. From flour to lettuce, foods once thought safe are increasingly becoming suspect. What if we have food safety policy and regulation all wrong?

In this New Tools for Science Policy talk, join Dr. Christy Spackman for an exploration of potential alternatives for thinking and working with, rather than against, microbes in building a safer food future. Drawing on a fictional, alternate future where scientists and food safety experts actively work alongside probiotic microbes to create environments that attenuate the ability of dangerous microbes to thrive, Spackman will first outline current research and policy gaps around food safety. She will then invite participants into speculative world-building that could lead to radically rethinking how we do food safety.