EFSA

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is an agency of the European Union established to provide independent scientific advice and communicate on risks associated with the food chain.

Its main roles include:

• Scientific Advice: Providing independent, up-to-date scientific advice on food safety issues to risk managers, which includes the European Commission, the European Parliament, and EU Member States.
• Risk Assessment: Conducting risk assessments to ensure the safety of food and feed, covering areas such as food additives, contaminants, foodborne diseases, and nutrition.
• Data Collection and Analysis: Collecting and analyzing data on biological hazards, chemical contaminants, food consumption, and emerging risks.
• Communication: Communicating its scientific findings to the public, ensuring transparency and building trust in the EU’s food safety system.
• Collaboration: Working with national authorities, international bodies, and other stakeholders to promote coherence in EU scientific advice and enhance food safety.

EFSA supports the validation and use of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) through several initiatives:

• Guidance Development: EFSA develops guidance documents and methodological approaches to integrate NAMs into risk assessment processes. This includes frameworks for assessing nanomaterials and other emerging technologies. See their website for more information.
• Scientific Collaboration: EFSA collaborates with international organizations, research institutions, and industry stakeholders to develop and validate NAMs. This helps ensure that these methodologies are scientifically robust and reliable.
• Workshops and Training: Organizing workshops and providing training to promote the use of NAMs among scientists and regulatory professionals.
• Integrated Approaches: Implementing Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment (IATAs) that prioritize NAMs for generating new information, thereby reducing reliance on animal testing.
• Publications and Reviews: Publishing reviews and scientific opinions on the application of NAMs in risk assessment, which helps in establishing confidence and regulatory acceptance of these methods.

In the EFSA 2027 Strategy, NAMs are included as a priority to minimise animal testing, produce more informative risk assessments, and make use of wider, improved and new data streams (Ref56). Based on these key elements, EFSA has defined a set of actions:

• Development of a NAMs Roadmap
• Increase international cooperation (e.g., through Accelerating the Pace of Chemical Risk Assessment (APCRA) network and the NAMs Working Group under the International Liaison Group on Methods for Risk Assessment of Chemicals in Food (ILMERAC))
• Selection of case studies for filling data gaps and exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to integrate NAMs data in EFSA’s risk assessment.

EFSA’s scientific advice is mostly provided by its Scientific Panels and Scientific Committee, like the EFSA Methodology and Scientific Support (MESE) unit and the EFSA Working Group on NAMs.

For additional support or helpdesk information, you can reach out to EFSA directly through their contact page. They offer resources and support for questions about food safety assessments and the use of NAMs.