Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development - Europe

EFSA debates risk tools

19-Apr-2005

Related topics: Legislation

Europe's food safety agency is calling for comments from industry and scientific community on a new opinion that tackles the risk assessment of genotoxic and carcinogenic properties.

In theory, there is always a risk associated with exposure,even at the lowest level, to genotoxic (harmful to DNA) and cancer-causing materials.

 

As Europe's food risk assessor - the Commission is the risk manager - EFSA currently uses a mixture of approaches to assess the risk of potentially harmful substances to European consumers.

 

"The scientific basis for these approaches is very much debated with the result that risk assessors tend to advise risk managers to keep exposure to such compounds as low as possible," says EFSA.

 

The agency concludes that, as a result, in the EU, risk assessors often advise risk managers to keep exposure to such compounds as low as possible.

 

But the agency cautions that the advice fails to set up "priorities for action" for the risk manager, particularly in light of the increasing number of substances which may be detected in the future as "analytical methodologies continue to improve."

 

In order to address these needs, a group of scientists at EFSA have developed a "harmonised, scientific and transparent approach" for the risk assessment of compounds that have both genotoxic and carcinogenic properties.

 

The draft opinion is now available for comment, to be submitted by 30 May 2005.

 

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