Subject fields in Food Safety during 10 years.

Abstract

Food Safety was started in November 2013 as a scientific journal issued by Food Safety Commission of Japan. (FSCJ) to promote domestic and global communications on food-related sciences. This journal was published quarterly and switched only to electronic publication since the year of 2014. All the issued are listed in J-Stage (https://www. jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/foodsafetyfscj/-char/en) and also the published issues of 2016 or later are listed in PubMed Central. This journal is aiming to cover wide varieties of scientific interests on foods, particularly 1) pathogenesis and toxicity of biological, chemical and physical factors in foods and the related, 2) risk factors in food-chain, 3) controls and epidemiology of food-mediated diseases and 4) foods and food-related items produced through genetic sciences and innovative sciences like nano-materials. Possible changes in trends of subject categories were expected in Food Safety, although relatively short-periods of the publication. A survey was thus conducted to understand interests of the authors and readers on this journal. The survey was divided into two periods before and after a year of 2016. Data were categorized into arbitrarily determined nine-fields. AMR (Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria) is only added in the second period because of the recent introduction. Fields listed are 1) contaminants in foods, 2) food additives, 3) microorganisms and viruses, 4) natural-toxins and mycotoxins, 5) novel foods and genetically modified foods, 6) pharmacology including drug metabolism, 7) prion, 8) risk communication, and 9) toxicology (in alphabetical order). As the results, studies on contaminants in foods and prion shared high rates of the publications, followed by reports on microorganisms and viruses and natural-toxins and mycotoxins, in the first period. Actual numbers of the publications of contaminants in foods and prion were decreased in the second period, probably reflections of calming down of social concerns on BSE and pesticide uses. Reports on microorganisms and viruses and natural-toxins and mycotoxins were in turn increased to share the highest published fields. These increases may be associated with the regulatory alterations. Present survey results indicate no obvious changes in publication fields of Food Safety, although certain extents of fluctuations in the publication ratios are detected. For the ease of readers, individual publication list is noted as follows: List of publication in the first period from No. 1 to 581–58). List of publication in the second period from No. 59 to 15759–160). ©2021 Food Safety Commission, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan doi: 10.14252/foodsafetyfscj.D-21-00007 Food Safety 2021; Vol. 9, No. 2, 25–31