The food supply of the United States is among the world's safest and most wholesome, however, significant food safety problems can cause either human illness, long term sequelae, death and severe economic losses that threaten the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture. Food safety, in particular the detection and control of food borne pathogens, is an important thrust area in the President’s Food Safety Initiative. The ARS Food Safety Program seeks to reduce to the greatest extent possible the incidence of food borne illness, and addresses the production, harvesting, processing, transportation, handling, and storage of food (the farm to table continuum) and emphasizes the prevention and/or control of food pathogens. The ARS has the resources, knowledge and experience to address and make significant contributions in all of these areas through cost effective research programs that maximize benefits to public health, and that maximize returns-on-investment to producers, processors, and the public.

Food may unintentionally contain contaminants, either toxic chemicals or toxins of natural origin. The Agricultural Research Service Food Safety Program also seeks to reduce to the greatest possible extent the incidence of food borne illness, and addresses the prevention of toxic chemical hazards in food, as well as the prevention and control of pathogens. The ARS has the resources, knowledge and experience to address and make significant contributions in three component areas of toxic chemicals, that is: mycotoxins, drug and environmental chemical residues, and toxic plants, through cost effective research programs that maximize benefits to public health and returns-on-investment, to producers, processors, and the public.

The food safety research program of the ARS has historically addressed concerns about food produced within the United States. However, since more food is now imported, in particular fruits and vegetables, ARS now addresses additional questions of safety, in particular, the need for methods to detect zoonotic pathogens in imported foods.

Research essential to meeting the objectives of the Food Safety National Programmay be part of other ARS National Programs. These include Animal Health (103); Animal Pests and Parasites (104); Grazing lands Management (205); Manure and Byproduct Utilization (206); Plant, Microbial and Insect Germplasm, Conservation and Development (301); Plant Diseases (303); and New Uses, Quality, and Marketability of Plant Products (306). The Food Safety National Program collaborates with these programs to meet National Program objectives.