A framework for harnessing public wisdom to ensure food safety

Abstract

Food safety issues often draw public attention after the discovery of suspected or confirmed cases of food poisoning and contamination. Food safety incidents reveal voids in existing food safety practices established by food science, governmental policies, and business processes. The vulnerability in food supply chain may yield room for potential food terrorism. This paper presents a framework for harnessing public wisdom from mass media to improve and advance existing practices to better ensure our food safety. The framework incorporates the use of content and social network analyses to distill important issues into food safety knowledge.