EFSA to contribute funds for allergen project

10-May-2017 - Last updated on 11-May-2017 at 06:29 GMT

Picture: iStock

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called for projects related to detection and quantification of allergens in foods.

The thematic grant call also includes minimum eliciting doses in food allergic individuals.

EFSA provides a co-funding rate of 50% for a project period of up to four years, and a maximum contribution of €375,000 per project.

Proposals need to be submitted by a consortium of at least two organisations from at least two different EU countries, Norway or Iceland.

The aim is to encourage scientific cooperation among Member States and support the exchange of expertise and best practice.

One of the organisations must be identified as the consortium leader (applicant). The applicant is responsible for identifying the other consortium partner(s).

EFSA only indicates the theme for proposals to give applicants and partners the possibility of defining and developing their own projects.

In a scientific opinion on the evaluation of allergenic foods and food ingredients for labelling purposes (NDA Panel, 2014), EFSA identified a series of data (and technology) gaps in scientific knowledge.

These may hamper food allergen risk assessment in the future, as well as enforcement of a labelling system based on threshold concentrations of allergens in foods, added the agency.

Eligible applicants from this list of organisations can submit proposals by 25 October.

Call for experts and Japan visit

From June, EFSA will open registration for experts to join its ten scientific panels and scientific committee.

The application procedure ends on 8 September 2017 with membership renewal from July 2018.

EFSA also recently visited the Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) for the fifth bilateral meeting in the last five years.

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) were also present.

The delegation took part in an international conference jointly organised by FSCJ and EFSA.

The focus was to identify key priorities and areas for cooperation between the EU, Japan and countries in Southeast Asia.

Bernhard Url, EFSA executive director, said there was a strong focus on cooperation.

“We were pleased to pass on our experience of cross-border efforts in Europe to our Japanese and Southeast Asian colleagues. We were able to learn too from the needs and successes of our Asian partners and identify some key projects for further cooperation.”