Editorial: Food safety in the context of One Health: current trends, challenges and perspectives

As the global population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, we are facing new challenges in meeting the rising global demand but also in addressing inequalities in accessing safe food and clean water. The impact of climate change and associated extreme weather events, including droughts and flooding, further limits our ability to ensure access to these essential resources. For example, recurrent heavy rainfall events and flooding can lead to the contamination of water bodies, which in turn results in the dissemination of pathogenic and antimicrobial resistant Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and enteric viruses into agricultural fields and farming environments. Moreover, rising temperatures driven by climate change may promote the growth of Vibrio species in coastal zones and estuaries, thereby affecting aquaculture production. On the other hand, consumers have shifted their food consumption patterns, with more sustainable practices being adopted but at the same time ensuring food safety remains a critical concern. Current methodologies face new challenges due to these dynamics, for which the One Health concept has evolved from a simple guiding principle into a widely recognized framework. These challenges, together with recent positive developments, create new opportunities for international collaboration and innovative research and policy making to improve surveillance, prevention, and control strategies in food. Therefore, the aim of this research topic is to explore multifaceted strategies to ensure food safety within the One Health framework while focusing on sustainable food production, the management of microbiomes in agriculture, and the development of new decontamination technologies. Within this research topic, 14 articles have been published, incorporating surveillance and detection, transmission pathways, antimicrobial resistance, and innovative intervention and control strategies for foodborne pathogens.Among these contributions, particular attention has been given to fruits and vegetables. In this context, Tenea and Angamarca (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1629139) reported the first complete genome of Staphylococcus xylosus FFCShyA4 with a predicted human pathogenicity of 98.2%. The multidrug resistant strain was isolated from the exocarp of Guatemalan avocados, in which intensive genomic analysis of the strain confirmed the carriage of multiple antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) conferring resistance to β-lactams, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and lincosamides. The strain carried multiple MGEs with one MGE carrying resistance determinants against heavy metal (copper homeostasis and silver resistance island; CHASRI). Both studies underscore the potential for discovery and the necessity of new surveillance approaches for novel foodborne pathogens.(https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1587035) investigated the susceptibility of protein-rich pulse crops, including chickpeas, peas, and lentils to aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus (AF-70 GFP) infection in a 10-day in vitro study. While aflatoxin production was lower in pulse crops compared to controls (corn), elevated concentrations of cyclopiazonic acid and α-aflatrem were observed. The study states that further research of fungal infections and mycotoxin production of pulse crops and pulse cropderived products is required, as crops on field and under storage conditions may show different susceptibility profiles.In contrast, Gomes et al. (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1729855) investigated the effects of using secondary-and tertiary-treated wastewater for irrigation of lettuce plants on the transmission of drugresistant bacteria and ARGs. While using extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and non-ESBL Escherichia coli as indicators for bacterial transmission, quantification was only possible in lettuce crops irrigated with secondary-treated water due to the limit of detection. Targeted quantitative PCR (16S rRNA genes, blaCTX-M-1, blaTEM, sul1, tetA) showed that secondary-treated water contained higher absolute abundances of ARGs compared to tertiary-treated wastewater. Thus, fractions of ARGs were transmitted and detected in lettuce crops after irrigation with secondary-and tertiary-treated wastewater (6% and 4%, respectively). This highlights the importance of irrigation water quality to prevent the transmission and contamination of crops with antimicrobial resistant microorganisms. Ten strains were isolated from pickled eggs and patient feces. Analyzed for ARGs and virulence genes via real-time PCR, mouse bioassay, and wholegenome sequencing revealed that all strains belonged to the MLST type ST193 and carried the cfr, spw, and vat ARGs. Moreover, Chowdhury et al. (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1708233) tested thousands of food samples together with environmental samples from food processing environments, and diarrheal stools from hospitalized patients for Proteus mirabilis between 2021-2024 in four states of Northeast India. P. mirabilis was predominantly detected in environmental samples (3.2%), but also in food samples with varying prevalence depending on the state. Isolated P. mirabilis strains exhibited high prevalence of resistance to quinolone/fluroquinolones, nalidixic acid, erythromycin, tetracycline, and doxycycline, while meropenem resistance differed depending on whether foods were state-specific.Similarly, Habib et al. (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1590906) investigated antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and MGEs in E. coli strains isolates from 253 frozen whole broiler carcasses. In total, 90 isolates were tested using conventional antimicrobial susceptibility testing, while 33 of these isolates were further analyzed using whole-genome sequencing. Of 253 frozen broiler carcasses, 248 tested positive for E. coli resistant to ampicillin (52.2%) and tetracycline (35.6%), while 68.9% of isolates exhibited multidrug resistance. Sequencing results confirmed the strong presence of blaCTX-M-55 and blaCTX-M-8 ESBL resistance genes in co-occurrence with qnrS1 and qnrB19, conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones, and the presence of these ARGs on conjugative plasmids. ). The phage-based treatment was able to achieve reductions of 1.56 log10 CFU/mL and 1.48 log10 CFU/mL for Salmonella BfR 20-SA00418 and E. coli 19/302/1/A after for 72 h storage at 4 ± 0.5 °C, suggesting the potential of phage-based biocontrol as an alternative for enhancing food safety in poultry meat production. Further challenges for these intervention methods may also present the association of foodborne pathogens with microplastics. Ortega-Sanz and Rajkovic (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1717297) investigated associations of C. jejuni contamination and AMR with microplastics. For the in vitro study, five C. jejuni strains from different origins were incubated for up to 24-72 h, together with 5 mm discs of biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET), usually used for food packaging. Interestingly, while biofilm formation on microplastic discs contributed to the persistence of C. jejuni strains, biofilm-derived strains exhibited a higher susceptibility to antibiotics.Overall, the articles within the research topic cover a great variety of different bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens as well as various food and food products, and underscore the need for more surveillance, exploratory, and intervention studies for the prevention of foodborne disease and AMR transmission in the perspective of One Health.