Genomics of foodborne pathogens for microbial food safety.

•Genetic data makes comparisons transparent, for broad sharing across the disciplines.•US FDA in combination with the NCBI developed the first distributed WGS network.•WGS combined with phylogenetics and metadata makes for faster source-tracking.•Need for genotype to phenotype predictions for pathogenicity and virulence.•Fully closed genomes facilitates comparative analysis and new epigenetic discoveries.•Metagenomic methods characterizing pathogens in foods remain expensive.