Eurofins U.S. Chief Science Officer Joelle Mosso on Why Testing Can't Solve Food Safety Problems

On this episode of Voices of the Valley, Joelle Mosso, Chief Science Officer of Eurofins U.S., discusses her expertise in microbiology and food science and how it relates to food safety. Mosso shares her thoughts on the complexities and challenges of working with a rapidly evolving biological environment. When asked about how food safety has changed over time, Mosso said, “In respect to what has changed [in food safety], it's that whole comment of 'Everything is safe until it’s not.' In food safety, we have to recognize that just because we haven’t seen something before doesn’t mean it’s not a risk… Food safety is dynamic, and I think that’s one of the things that makes food safety really, really hard to handle.” The discussion shifts toward the benefits and limitations of testing. Mosso notes that the value of data collected from testing is in the utilization of the information in a proactive food safety strategy: “Tests don’t solve problems. I can have the best tests in the world, it’s not going to solve it. So [it’s] what you do with that information that solves something.” For Mosso, adaptability is key when it comes to the science behind food safety. “I think that’s the thing with food safety - or anything with science and research - is that we are always understanding and finding new information, and some of it sometimes invalidates something we were completely sure on before,” she says. “I think that’s where food safety is: Recognizing on the day-to-day how to apply a food safety program to continually improve it to make it a safer and safer product.”