The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued “a call for acrylamide occurrence data in food and beverages intended for human consumption collected outside official controls.” Part of the agency’s ongoing assessment of acrylamide levels in food and beverages, the latest request for data focuses on the following product categories: (i) french fries sold as ready to eat; (ii) potato crisps; (iii) pre-cooked french fries and potato products for homecooking; (iv) soft bread; (v) breakfast cereals; (vi) biscuits, crackers, crisp bread, and similar products; (vii) coffee and coffee substitutes; (viii) baby foods, “other than processed cereal based foods”; (ix) “processed cereal-based foods for infants and young children”; and (x) other products, including muesli and porridge, pastry and cakes, and savory snacks. EFSA has specified that “the analytical method used for the quantitative determination of acrylamide… should achieve a LOQ [level of quantification] of 30 µm/kg for bread and foods for…
Category Archives European Food Safety Authority
Although a recent proposal to restrict the use of three neonicotinoids failed to gain support from the qualified majority of member states on an appeals committee, the European Commission (EC) has announced its intention to proceed with the plan as part of its bid to better protect honeybees. Basing its decision on a European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) scientific report that “identified ‘high acute risks’ for bees as regards exposure to dust in several crops such as maize, cereals and sunflower, to residue in pollen and nectar in crops like oilseed rape and sunflower and to guttation in maize,” the Commission has agreed to limit the use of clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiametoxam “for seed treatment, soil application (granules) and foliar treatment on bee- attractive plants and cereals” for a period of two years starting December 1, 2013. Under the plan, “the remaining authorized uses are available only to professionals,” with possible…
The European Commission (EC) has released the results of its investigation into beef products contaminated with horsemeat, reporting that 5 percent of tested products were contaminated with horse DNA and 0.5 percent of tested horse carcasses were contaminated with the pain reliever phenylbutazone (bute). The investigation apparently involved 7,259 tests carried out by 27 member states in addition to 7,951 tests conducted by food business operators, including producers, processors and distributors. Based on these results, the Commission has reiterated the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) assessment that bute contamination poses a low risk to consumers. “Today’s findings have confirmed that this is a matter of food fraud and not of food safety,” said EU Commissioner for Health and Consumers Tonio Borg. “Restoring the trust and confidence of European consumers and trading partners in our food chain following this fraudulent labeling scandal is now of vital importance for the European economy…
In a recent paper, a member of European Food Safety Authority and Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety genetically modified organism (GMO) panels has explored whether biosafety data provided to regulatory authorities by companies developing GMOs should be protected from disclosure. K.M. Nielsen, “Biosafety Data as Confidential Business Information,” PLOS Biology, 2013. Noting that standards or criteria as to what constitutes “legitimate” confidential business information (CBI) in GM product applications are lacking, the author argues that CBI claims are used indiscriminately and prevent independent research and monitoring. The article concludes with the author’s suggested criteria for “warranted CBI claims.” Among other things, the criteria would exclude from protection “information present in patent documents or for information not considered to be or not under confidentiality agreements in other companies/locations/countries.”
The European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) has issued a priority list of food additives “for which scientific data are required to finalize their re-evaluation within deadlines established by European legislation.” Tasked with re-evaluating hundreds of food additives by 2020, EFSA’s Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food (ANS Panel) has asked member states and other stakeholders to provide the following information for 51 food additives: (i) “figures from industry on the amounts of these additives they report using in their products”; and (ii) “data derived from analyses indicating actual levels of these additives found in foods and drinks from national food authorities, research institutions, academia, food industry, and other stakeholders.” To meet the evaluation deadlines, the ANS Panel has divided food additives into groups “based on the availability of scientific data.” The panel will accept data related to the 15 additives in the first group—which includes β-apo-8’-…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced a forthcoming public consultation to discuss its draft opinion on the potential health risks of bisphenol A (BPA). Slated for final adoption in November 2013, the draft opinion will take into account “ongoing scientific work on BPA at European and national levels” as well as the work of EFSA’s Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF Panel), which in February 2012 agreed to undertake “a full re-evaluation of the human risks associated with exposure to BPA” from both dietary and non-dietary sources. According to a March 26, 2013, press release, EFSA last completed a full risk assessment for the substance in 2006, concluding at the time that dietary BPA exposures for adults, infants and children “were all well below” the Tolerable Daily Intake set at 0.05 mg/kg body weight/day. Since the 2006 opinion, however, scientific experts and national…
The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Scientific Committee has issued an opinion “that clarifies the scientific criteria for identifying an endocrine disruptor.” Requested by the European Commission, the opinion addresses “the testing and assessment of endocrine active substances (EASs) and endocrine disruptors (EDs)” by adopting the World Health Organization’s definition for EDs, which must meet the following three criteria: “the presence of (i) an adverse effect in an intact organism or a (sub)population; (ii) an endocrine activity; and (iii) a plausible causal relationship between the two.” The opinion also identifies “a reasonably complete suite of standardized assays for testing the effects of EASs [that] is (or will soon be) available for the oestrogenic, androgenic, thyroid and steroidogenic modalities in mammals and fish” known to be sensitive to endocrine disruption. The Scientific Committee has stressed, however, that not all EASs are EDs, ultimately advocating “a risk assessment approach” that evaluates substances…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced an April 9, 2013, scientific meeting to discuss its draft opinion on the re-evaluation of aspartame (E951). Issued by the agency’s Scientific Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food (ANS Panel), the re-evaluation declined to revise the current Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame after concluding that the substance and its breakdown products “pose no toxicity concern for consumers at current levels of exposure.” Additional details about this conclusion appear in Issue 466 of this Update. The follow-up meeting seeks to clarify any comments received during the draft opinion’s consultation period, which ended February 15. Before adopting its final opinion on aspartame, the ANS Panel will take into account these responses and meeting discussions, as well as issue a separate report that outlines these proceedings. EFSA has asked “scientific experts in the field of food safety and parties who…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have agreed to conduct a health risk assessment of phenylbutazone after officials reportedly discovered the anti-inflammatory drug “in a small number of horse carcasses intended for the food chain.” According to a March 7, 2013, news release, the European Commission requested the assessment as part of an EU-wide investigation into beef contaminated with horsemeat. “[U]sed sparingly in human medicine for the treatment of severe inflammatory conditions where no other treatment is considered suitable,” phenylbutazone is also approved for veterinary use but only in non-food producing animals such as dogs and sport horses. EFSA thus considers the drug a contaminant in food and will work with EMA to determine whether residues found in horsemeat pose any health risks to consumers. To this end, the agencies will consider “both the risk posed from consumption of the horsemeat itself as well as…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will host a meeting on March 20, 2013, in Brussels to discuss the agency’s work in the area of endocrine active substances (EAS) and endocrine disruptors (ED). The EFSA Scientific Committee will present its opinion on “Hazard assessment of endocrine disruptors: scientific criteria for identification of endocrine disruptors and appropriateness of existing testing methods for assessing effects mediated by these substances on human health and the environment,” which was created in response to the European Commission’s September 2012 mandate to define scientific criteria for identifying ED and to review whether existing toxicity methods are appropriate to identify and characterize potential endocrine activity (effect on endocrine system) and/or endocrine disruption (leading to an adverse effect) in humans and the ecosystem.
