Articles - Foreword

Affidia is now in its third year of activity. We started just a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world. One of the consequences of this global disaster was the cancellation of scientific conferences in 2020-2021. Even at the beginning of 2022, some conferences are still being cancelled, others are taking on hybrid forms, and the nu [...]

This Special Issue gathers some of the mycotoxin papers we have published since 2020. I would like to highlight some milestones in the evolution of this food safety issue. The decision of the European Union to establish Maximum Limits is probably the most significant change in the history of mycotoxin regulation and risk management in the EU. The i [...]

This issue of Affidia Journal combines 2021’s third and fourth issue because we began producing virtual events this year. We have adopted this hybrid model because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received from the community of food safety and food analytics professionals. The audience we have had has been far beyond our expect [...]

Affidia’s editorial policy is to provide insights into topics that are often neglected by other journals. Every article in this issue is relevant and interesting, but I first want to direct your attention to the article by Francois Bourdichon and Anett Winkler, “Analytical laboratories in the food industry: in-house or third-party? (Or [...]

Four years ago the EU food market was hit by the fipronil scandal. The epicenter was in the Netherlands, the EU’s largest egg exporter. Contaminated eggs were found in almost every European country. In this issue, we will revisit this case because there is still much to learn from it. The US perspective was enlightening: “The case appea [...]

This issue of Affidia is the last one of 2020, but it is the first issue in our new format, designed as a fully digital magazine. What you see is part of a larger editorial program, not just a different look. The Journal, which will continue to be available in its printed form, is now more than just a quarterly publication: it is a dynamic, continu [...]

During the first wave of COVID-19 here in Italy where about 30 000 people died in just a few weeks, many new — and a few weird — things happened. Scientists and laboratories started looking for the virus in the air and in airborne microparticles (a good idea), in sewage (a good idea), and on food packaging and in food itself (a much les [...]

First of all, I want to express my joy to be here again. Italy, as you all certainly know, was the first Western country affected by Covid-19 after the outbreak in China. At this point, we have had 35 000 deaths in Italy and for a few weeks in some parts of northern Italy hospitals had difficulties caring for all of the sick people. The lockdown, t [...]

“Modern factory farming methods could not be carried on without the use of antibiotics.” “The resistant bacteria can be passed direct from animals to man and secondly, they can be passed on in the food so produced.” These sentences are not from one of the authors of this issue of Affidia. I am quoting Ruth Harrison from 1964 [...]

The impact of food allergies on human health is a growing concern. We present here both a review of prevalence data and an analysis of food product recalls. The first paper demonstrates how difficult epidemiologists’ work is in this area. The second introduces the world of food manufacturing, a complex industry where allergen sources are diff [...]