Event review – International symposium on "Credibility of scientific expertise and public decision-making"
Increased complexity of health risks in a globalised world, mistrust of the authorities: the contribution of scientific expertise to public decision-making regularly generates high expectations and lively debate. This has once again been demonstrated with the COVID-19 pandemic. ANSES examined these issues in early 2021 at an international scientific symposium focusing on two key questions: What determines whether or not scientific expertise is credible? What factors contribute to the credibility of the knowledge and information mobilised for public decision-making?
A project to understand and model the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in meat processing plants
A number of grouped cases or clusters of COVID-19 have been identified among workers in food processing plants, in France and around the world. A project coordinated by ANSES and funded by the National Research Agency (ANR) is now under way to better understand how the virus circulates in meat processing plants and to suggest appropriate preventive measures.
Launch of a project in Lyon to bring ANSES and the ANSM closer together: their future shared home takes shape
The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) and the French Health Products Safety Agency (ANSM) have decided to combine some of their scientific activities and bring them together under a new roof. The Pargade Architectes firm was chosen to build this new shared home. Entirely dedicated to the "One Health" approach, the new building will combine cutting-edge technological facilities with laboratories ensuring a high level of biosafety in human, animal and plant health. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2024. It will further consolidate the agencies' presence within Lyon's global competitiveness cluster, an ecosystem of excellence devoted to health and infectious diseases that benefits from an internationally renowned scientific community.
Facilitate access to mass catering and improve nutritional quality in fast-food restaurants
Every week in France, 83% of children and adolescents and nearly 80% of working adults and students take one or more meals outside their home. ANSES conducted a review of the foods consumed and the nutritional intakes of these meals taken away from home. Mass catering, i.e. school and company canteens, appears to be more in line with current dietary recommendations than other categories of out-of-home catering. The Agency therefore advocates providing easier access to it for as many people as possible. Conversely, ANSES warns of the poor nutritional quality of fast-food restaurants, which are increasingly popular with the French.
Celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we take a closer look at the activities and careers pursued by women at ANSES. Women at ANSES are present in many different fields, including research and surveillance, health risk assessment, regulatory sciences and support for management measures, whether in the fields of animal and plant health, food safety or chemical substances, as well as in social sciences. So what do they have in common? A shared passion for science and a shared commitment to the public interest.
A new technique capable of identifying unregistered GMOs
Thanks to a technique developed by the ANSES Plant Health Laboratory, at the site in Angers, it is now easier to identify an unregistered DNA sequence in a genetically modified organism (GMO).
A new online reporting website for the French nutrivigilance scheme
The French nutrivigilance scheme collects reports of adverse effects associated with the consumption of certain food products, including food supplements. Healthcare professionals, manufacturers or distributors and individuals can now report these adverse effects more quickly and easily on a new website. By submitting reports to this site, they are helping to improve knowledge of these products and consumer safety.
ANSES portrait - “Covering all aspects of the health risks associated with food”- Corinne Danan
Corinne Danan is Deputy Head of the Salmonella and Listeria Unit at the ANSES Laboratory for Food Safety. She is a research engineer with 20 years of experience in the health risks associated with food.