The future of food safety

If it’s not safe, it’s not food. Safe food is essential to all people. As a global food company, we believe we have an important role to play to help ensure safe food and we know it’s important to consumers too. A recent survey by the Mars Global Food Safety Center (GFSC), a state-of-the-art research and training facility, found that 52% of respondents consider food safety one of the top three global issues, and 77% believe it’s a top 10 global issue.*

The Mars GFSC, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2020, collaborates with more than 25 strategic partners to generate insights and share knowledge to help tackle food safety challenges. Among the Mars GFSC’s efforts:

Microbial risk management

Exploring science and technology that may help predict and even prevent the presence of microbial foodborne pathogens that can cause illnesses.

Mycotoxin risk management

Investigating ways to tackle mycotoxins and aflatoxins, produced by certain types of fungi that contaminate more than 25% of the world’s crop area and can have a devastating effect on human health.

Food integrity

Battling food integrity issues, such as adulteration where low-quality goods are marketed as their high-quality equivalents, by developing a fingerprinting method to help food producers and suppliers authenticate certain food materials.

Global warming, increased globalization of trade, and changes in agricultural practices and food production pose new threats to the global food supply we all rely upon. At Mars, we believe we have a responsibility to help ensure safe food. That’s why, along with our partners, we drive new insights and share knowledge to help raise the bar for all.

GFSC Director, Dr. Guangtao Zhang

Meet the scientist

GFSC Director, Dr. Guangtao Zhang

Mars is working to help raise food safety standards by applying genomics and big data to find new insights and a better understanding of the global food supply chain, says GFSC Director Dr. Guangtao Zhang.

*The survey, conducted Sept. 11-20, 2020, consisted of more than 1,750 people in China, the U.K. and the U.S.