Levine

Historically, food safety research has been undertaken in Food Science departments, with specific discipline-driven projects and a largely post-harvest focus. Due to the recent emergence of pathogens that originate during food production (e.g., enterohemorrhagic E. coli, Campylobacter spp., among others), research focus has expanded to include both pre- and post-harvest food safety considerations. Although epidemiologists have long recognized the "trinity" of factors (i.e., (i) the pathogen; (ii) the host; and (iii) the environment) that influence the occurrence of food-related illness they have just begun to work effectively with microbiologists, ecologists, and geneticists to characterize the ecology of pathogens on the farm. Despite these efforts, food safety research remains a largely uncoordinated effort conducted by individual investigators. To maximize the potential to effectively address pre-harvest food-safety issues a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team of investigators has been assembled to cooperatively conduct food-safety research targeted to address complex issues that are beyond the scope of an individual investigator or laboratory.