Annette Nygaard Jensen

Annette Nygaard Jensen serves as a Senior Researcher at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), within the Research Group for Food Microbiology and Hygiene. Her work focuses on enhancing food safety throughout production chains, with particular emphasis on primary production systems including organic farming and novel food sources like insect production.

Her educational background includes a PhD from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University / Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research (2002-2005) and an M.Sc. in Biology from University of Aarhus (1991-1998). Prior to her current position, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research (1999-2002) followed by a Postdoc at DTU's National Food Institute starting in 2006.

Dr. Jensen's research centers on transmission and control of food-borne pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli. She has developed significant expertise in food safety within organic farming systems, insect production for food/feed, and pathogen control interventions. Her work has important implications for circular bioeconomy initiatives, particularly regarding the use of organic side-streams as insect feed substrates. She has pioneered research on housefly transmission of Campylobacter to chicken flocks and developed models to investigate pathogen survival in flies.

Her publication portfolio demonstrates consistent focus on Campylobacter interventions across multiple food production chains, with recent work examining slurry ice technology for poultry decontamination and feed additives for pathogen reduction in broilers. Her research shows strong alignment with practical food safety applications in both conventional and organic production systems.

Dr. Jensen currently supervises PhD research on Campylobacter across the broiler production chain and participates in multiple active research projects including SafeChicken (2022-2025) and Combating Campylobacter (2024-2027). She has been involved in numerous European collaborative projects such as SafeOrganic, inVALUABLE, and CamChain, demonstrating her standing in the international food safety research community.

Her external engagement includes regular participation in workshops, conferences, and seminars, with recent activities including the Zoonoseseminar 2025, Optimizing utilization of industrial organic waste streams workshop, and the 19th workshop of the EURL/NRLs CPS. She has also contributed to media discussions on food safety topics, particularly regarding insect production and feed additives for pathogen control.