EFSA’s Expert Database (EDB) was established with the main objective to have a database of external scientific experts in place that can be queried in order to support the activities carried out by the Scientific Committee, the Scientific Panels and their working groups.

During 2012 a total number of 407 applications was received and by the end of 2012 the EDB held information on 3 312 experts, 94.4 % of which shared their profile with external users of the database (Advisory Forum and Focal Point Network members and the European Commission).

During the course of 2012, the EDB continued to be promoted with the support of Focal Points and by EFSA. All EU Member States (MS) and countries of the European Economic Area/ European Free Trade Association (EEA/EFTA countries) as well as 38 other countries are represented in the EDB. Some MS and EEA/EFTA countries continue to have a relatively low representation.

All main areas of expertise that fall within EFSA’s remit are present on the EDB. “New technologies” and “Plant health” continued to be the areas of expertise less well represented in the EDB. “Food production and food supply”, together with “Biological hazards” and “Feed” were the areas of expertise with higher growth rates.

An increase of the number of available experts in the less represented areas may be achieved by fostering targeted EDB promotion activities. General promotion activities aimed at increasing the total number of experts included in the EDB, as well as targeted promotion activities in certain countries and scientific areas, continue to be the priority activities foreseen for 2013 on the EDB. Further cooperation activities with Focal Points are crucial to achieve the abovementioned proposed objectives.

Expert Database 2012 Annual Report

The BfR has published the proceedings jointly with its Danish and French sister authorities, DTU Food and ANSES. It contains among other things articles on the question as to how risk communication affects the general public in a crisis, what value is added by the involvement of the EU Commission and European Food Safety Authority EFSA in times of crisis and how to come to terms with the legal principles which occur in crisis situations.

Crisis prevention

EFSA has published the Annual Report of Activities, which summaries the activities carried out during 2012. EFSA’s Art 36 list was launched on 2008 with the main objective to establish a database of external scientific experts that can be queried in order to enhance its capacity to conduct risk assessments in the areas of food and feed safety (including nutrition, toxicology, chemistry, animal health and welfare, plant protection and plant health).

Those experts help EFSA to deliver timely scientific advice of the highest standards to support the policies and decisions of Europe’s risk managers (European Commission, European Parliament and EU Member States).

The main activities carried out during 2012 as follows:

• During the reporting period, a total of 416 entries were included in the List
• The majority of organisations on the Article 36 List are universities/academic institutions (44 %), followed by governmental organisations (36 %) and other public institutions (20 %).
• The field with the largest number of organisations was related to “contaminants in food”, followed by “biological hazards” and “nutrition, dietetic products and/or allergies”. Although over the years the highest percentage increase of organisations were counted in the areas of “plant health” and “GMO”, they still retained the lowest and second lowest numbers of organisations, respectively.
• A total of 70 organisations have participated in one or more grant project and 62 participated in one or more procurement activity between 2007 and 2012.

The list will be reviewed by the end of 2013, because the List should comprise the relevant organisations of each country to work with EFSA.

Activities Report Art 36 List in 2012

For a number of scientific and other reasons, the procedures currently used for both human and ecological risk assessment are anticipated to change substantially over the next few decades. However, the roadmaps for these changes are expected to be distinctly different for ecological and human health risk assessments. This opinion focuses on the future of risk assessment of organic chemicals although many of the techniques discussed would be applicable to other stressors too.

Full report

Therefore, the starting point for this review has been an assessment, through a survey, of needs of managers and policymakers recognizing that risk assessment makes little sense unless it is effectively informing the management process. In carrying out this survey, the Scientific Committees have also been sensitive to the continuing need to ensure that while assessment should be informed by the needs of management they should not be biased by them.

Full text

The European Commission has adopted on Monday 6 May 2013 a package of measures to strengthen the enforcement of health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain.

The package of measures provide a modernised and simplified, more risked-based approach to the protection of health and more efficient control tools to ensure the effective application of the rules guiding the operation of the food chain.

The current body of EU legislation covering the food chain consists of almost 70 pieces of legislation. The package of reform will cut this down to 5 pieces of legislation and will also reduce the red-tape on processes and procedures for farmers, breeders and food business operators (producers, processors and distributors) to make it easier for them to carry out their profession.

Businesses will benefit from simpler, science and risk-based rules in terms of reduced administrative burden, more efficient processes and measures to finance and strengthen the control and eradication of animal diseases and plant pests. Consumers will benefit from safer products and a more effective and more transparent system of controls along the chain.

Package of measures

EFSA was asked by the European Commission to deliver a Scientific Opinion on guidance on methodological principles and scientific methods to be take n into account when establishing Reference Points for Action (RPAs) for non - allowed pharmacologically active substances in food of animal origin.

Full report

The present methodological study was executed to assess how the compatibility of existing consumption data as well as the representativeness of food dietary exposure and risk estimates at the European level could be improved through the development of a “Compiled European Food Consumption Database”.

Full report

The aim of the site is to promote scientific cooperation and networking in Europe by enabling countries to share information on risk assessment activities in food and feed safety. This includes notifying when a risk assessment has started and sharing outputs of risk assessment activities. This report provides information on the Use of the IEP by Member States, EEA/EFTA and EU candidate countries, the number and type of Documents uploaded in 2012.

During 2012, a total of 254 documents have been uploaded by 21 countries, reaching a total of 1212 documents that were uploaded. The vast majority are RA Outputs (995) and the rest are Workplans (83), RA Mandates (69) and Country Specific Info (65). In 2012 year some 500 users have paid a total of 1600 visits and performed almost 1900 downloads.

Different countries use the IEP to a different extent, and though the platform has been used by most of the countries and has functioned as a cooperation tool, it seems that the restricted access to the IEP is resulting to a limited number of visits and downloads.

Considering the non-confidential nature of the documents that are shared within the IEP it would be advisable to open access.This wider access is expected to increase awareness of the already comprehensive set of risk assessment outputs and documents that have been shared by the Member States, so that other users would be stimulated to share other relevant outputs.

Annual IEP Report 012

In the context of modernising post-mortem meat inspection (PMMI) to make it truly risk-based and food chain-orientated, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is currently assessing existing official EU meat inspection including PMMI procedures for a range of livestock species. EFSA´s scientific opinions on meat inspection of swine and poultry have already been published1, and those on meat inspection of ruminants, farmed game animals and solipeds are under development.

Full report

Spanish food compsumption 2012 stats

FSA is looking forward to another busy year as it prepares to deliver around 690 scientific outputs in 2013. Specific aspects of the risk assessment programme will include advice on the use of animal-based welfare indicators and meat inspection. Work related to public health will covers areas such as dietary reference values for micronutrients, mycotoxins and acrylamide. Other key outputs will include bee health and pesticides, bisphenol A and aspartame to name a few. The full programme will reflect EFSA’s broad remit to protect consumers, animals and the environment while supporting innovation in the agri-food sector.

Work Plan 2013- EFSA

The attached document summarises the topic areas in which the Food Standards Agency expects to take forward new science and evidence activities, including, where necessary, issuing requests for science and evidence proposals in financial year 2013/2014. These will deliver the evidence it needs to support its Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 (and possible future needs), first published in December 2009 (and most recently updated in January 2013.) This Forward Plan has been developed as part of the FSA‟s business planning and builds on the input received in developing the Strategic Plan and the Science and Evidence Strategy.

The proposed activities cover a wide range of areas within the Agency’s remit:

1. Microbiological food safety, including campylobacter, E.coli, listeria and norovirus
2. A range of issues related to food and feed hygiene policy
3. Chemical safety of food, including metals and organic contaminants
4. The next round of the FSA strategic challenge call
5. Diet and health related work funded by the FSA in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Calls for open competitions will be advertised at: https://fsa-esourcing.eurodyn.com/epps/home.do

FSA Forward Evidence Plan 2013
Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015

Some foods for infants and young children contain the heavy metals arsenic, lead and cadmium to a varying degree. The levels do not exceed the existing maximum levels but in some cases can still pose a health risk to young children.

This is revealed by a large-scale, detailed study carried out by Livsmedelsverket [the Swedish National Food Agency] to investigate the extent of the problem of heavy metals and harmful levels of minerals in foods for children. In 2011-12, Livsmedelsverket studied 92 different foods for infants (0-12 months) and young children (1-3 years) from 24 companies: 13 infant formula and follow-on formula products, 40 porridge and gruel products, 27 products for special medical purposes, nine rice,- oat,- and soya drinks and three other products (porridge oats, roasted oat flour and instant rice). Besides arsenic, lead and cadmium, analyses were also carried out for the minerals iron, copper and manganese. Results show that it is mainly in cereal-based, including rice- and soya-based, products that levels of certain heavy metals and minerals could pose a health risk to infants and young children. We therefore advise parents to vary their children's food, in other words to give them different kinds of food and to vary the brands.

Arsenic

All rice products studied – porridge, gruel and rice drinks – contained arsenic. Rice drinks in particular could pose a health risk to young children. They are often used as a milk substitute for children who are allergic to milk or children on a vegan diet, for example, and in such cases they are consumed for long periods of time. We consider this to be so serious that we advise parents not to give rice drinks to children under the age of six.

Lead

Many products contained low levels of lead, but it is important to reduce the levels even further. This is especially true for infant formula and products for sick children, since these products are often used as a sole source of nutrition. One of the porridges and one of the gruels contained lead, and these levels also need to be reduced. - Even though the levels of lead in the products were below the maximum levels, they give cause for concern since infants and young children are sensitive to the effects of lead. We are informing the companies concerned of the results and emphasising how important it is that they reduce the levels, says Emma Halldin Ankarberg. Cadmium was also present in some products. The levels are not considered to pose any acute health risk, but the levels need to be reduced further.

Manganese

The study also carried out analyses for the minerals iron, copper and manganese. Three products exceeded the maximum levels for at least one of the minerals studied. In eleven of the products to which a mineral had been added, the difference between the analysed content and the declared content exceeded what may be considered acceptable. This reveals deficiencies in the companies' controls on the products, particularly when it comes to products for sick children, where the difference between declared and actual content differed too much in 26 per cent of the products. The products for sick children also contained high levels of manganese. In most cases, the companies had not added more manganese than is permitted according to EU maximum levels. However, when the products are given in the doses indicated on the packaging, the amount of manganese ingested by infants and young children is too high. Infants and young children who only receive enteral formula, for example, can ingest more than what is referred to as the "tolerable daily intake" of manganese.

Report 1. Analytical results

Report 2. Risk and Benefit assessment

Report 3. Risk and Benefit management

This review examines the current body of literature on risk communication related to communicable diseases, focusing on:

• definitions and theories of risk communication
• methodologies, tools and guidelines for risk communication research, policy and implementation
• implications, insights and key lessons learned from the application of risk communication principles in real-world settings.

Full report

The Heads of National Food Agencies in Europe (HoA) has created a Working Group comprised representatives from six national food agencies: the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV), Belgium; the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Germany; the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), Netherlands; the Norwegian Food Safety Authority; the National Food Agency, Sweden; and the Food Standards Agency (FSA), UK.

This HoA looks at how to ensure that risk assessments are used consistently and transparently in decisions on food safety in the EU. A key conclusion is that there needs to be the same level of transparency and rigour in making risk management decisions as already exists for risk assessment, to ensure that the basis for decisions is clear, rational and justifiable.

The report makes a number of recommendations for how these objectives can be achieved. Key recommendations are that:

1. National agencies share their experiences on developing and using frameworks for risk management
2. The agencies work with the European Commission to develop such a framework at EU level.

The Working Group will now develop an action plan for implementing the recommendations.

Report on the transparent use of risk assessment in decision making

The purpose of the document is to support countries in establishing and implementing an effective national food recall system to respond to food safety events or emergencies. By drawing on demonstrated best practices, the elements for an effective national food recall system, and the process for establishing, reviewing and/or improving the national food recall system, are described as essential components of a national food control system.

Gidelines

The Strategic Research Agenda of the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE – JPI) sets out the strategic priorities for trans-disciplinary and innovative European research on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change and provides a framework for the alignment of existing programmes and joint research efforts to achieve the twin objectives of food security and combating climate change.

The FACCE-JPI Strategic Research Agenda launched is the result of a dialogue between high-level international scientists and stakeholders. It sets out 5 core research themes reflecting the key challenges to be tackled by FACCE-JPI:

1. Sustainable food security under climate change
2. Environmentally sustainable growth and intensification of agriculture
3. Trade-offs between food supply, biodiversity and ecosystem services
4. Adaptation to Climate Change
5. Mitigation of Climate Change.

The Strategic Agenda defines short, medium, and long term research priorities and sets out joint actions for each of these core themes. It aims to reinforce infrastructures and platforms, training and capacity building in Europe and knowledge exchange. It also foresees evaluation and monitoring of its activities.

FACCE – JPI brings together 21 European and Associated countries engaged to enhance European research capacity for facing the challenge of producing food – as well as feed, fibre and bio-fuels for an increasing population in the context of changing climate.

By aligning national research programmes, FACCE – JPI aims to reduce duplication, cover gaps, and create European level synergy and critical mass in these areas and to maximise the efficiency of research funding.

FACCE strategy to tackle challenges of agriculture and food security under climate change

The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF), who provides advice to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on a range of issues relating to the microbiological safety of food, has presented its 2011 Annual Report.

ACMSF 2011 Annual Report

ACSA has published the Food Safety Plan proposal in Catalonia 2012-2016 which has been developed with the participation of the Catalonian government responsible in this matter, the food chain operators and consumers. This Plan has to be approved by the Government of the Generalitat Catalonia.

The Plan includes strategic objectives, and specific actions to be implemented during this period in the Risk Analysis process (Risk Assessment, Risk Management and Risk Communication). Moreover, the Plan establishes interventions to promote cooperation, coordination and efficiency of actions in Food Safety in Catalonia.

Food Safety Plan proposal in Catalonia 2012-2016

Hundreds of the world’s leading food safety experts gathered in Parma on the 7 and 8 November to take part in a high-level scientific conference organised by EFSA to mark its tenth anniversary.

Presentations

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAPYA) has published the latest data analyzed by the Consumer Panel at Spanish homes, showing an increase in food consumption and expenses from October 2011 to September 2012.

Food consumption in householders
Monthly data

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues to provide guidance on methodology for performing probabilistic dietary exposure assessment of single or multiple active substances, as a potential additional tool to supplement or complement the standard deterministic methodologies which are currently used in the EU for conducting dietary exposure assessments for pesticides.

Full report

This report illustrates how the FSA commissions and uses its science and evidence knowledge to drive food safety policy and advice, by reducing the incidence of foodborne diseases.

The report includes information on trends and statistics on the major species of foodborne pathogens, notably Campylobacter, Listeria, Norovirus, Salmonella and E. coli, and actions that are being taken in collaboration with the food industry to reduce levels of microbiological contamination in food. Also, the use of science of toxicology to ensure that consumers are not exposed to unsafe levels of chemicals in food is explained.

Moreover, FSA´s work on food allergy and intolerance is described, its social science research into attitudes and behaviours to food, and 'next generation' scientific detection techniques which could make the investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks quicker and more effective in the future. FSA has been working with, and funding, a number of national and international partners to inform and prepare the Agency for future emerging risks.

Summary tables with information about all of the science and evidence-gathering projects funded by FSA in the past year, including financial information, can be accessed in Annexe A.

Annual Report of the FSA Chief Scientist

The objective of the Pilot study for Assessment of Nutrient intake and food Consumption Among Kids in Europe (PANCAKE) project was to develop, test, and evaluate tools and procedures for a future harmonised pan-European food consumption survey (EU Menu) among infants, toddlers, children (up to ten years), and breastfeeding women.

Full report

Nordic dietary surveys 17/09/12 National dietary surveys have been completed in all five Nordic countries for purposes of nutritional assessment. The NORDIRA project started in 2009 with objectives of sharing experiences within collection of food consumption data and applications of it in food-based risk assessment. The NORDIRA-group consisted of experts working within dietary surveys as well within risk assessment.

The project collected results and methodological aspects of national dietary surveys, the presentations of food consumption figures and data calculation processes of risk assessment. This TemaNord report is a summary of the presentations and experiences shared during the three year period of the NORDIRA project.

The group emphasizes a flexible food aggregation system in reporting food consumption to enable different kind of matching of data from food consumption and occurence of chemical substances: caffeine, sweeteners, food preservatives, pesticides, methylmercury, perfluorinated compound, dioxins,cadmium and heterocyclic amines

NORDIRA-Nordic dietary surveys

The European Food Safety Authority has published a second periodic report on its work in the area of emerging risk identification. The report highlights findings from the 2010-2012 pilot phase that tested procedures to monitor, collect and analyse information and data for the identification of emerging risks in the field of food and feed safety, including valuable lessons learned and recommendations for future development. The aim of this work is at the forefront in the development of a process to anticipate future risks in the EU food and feed chain so as to support risk managers in taking preventative measures that will increase consumer protection.

The Authority also recognises the importance of sharing what has and has not worked; providing examples of the types of emerging issues that can be identified within the parameters of the Authority’s capacity, giving specialists in the field useful feedback as a means to further develop similar systems. To illustrate, a template is appended to the report that, through hands-on experience, EFSA has refined to use as a means to structure the evaluation of the information used for the identification of potential emerging risks.

Using an expert judgment approach, specific issues were identified for follow-up activities including 4 outsourced projects (i.e. impact of climate change on aflatoxin emergence in cereal crops, omics technologies in risk assessment, a European-wide survey on energy drink consumption, and developing approaches for assessing human health risks from exposure to multiple chemical residues), 3 internal task forces (i.e. bee health, emerging tools and methods for hazard assessment, and chemical mixtures), and 2 reports on trade and food prices. These follow-up activities will contribute to the determination of whether the issues identified are indeed emerging risks. The issues prioritised were identified mainly from the scientific literature and expert networks.

Overall, our experience shows that ERI requires a high level of expertise due to major data gaps and uncertainties in the evaluation process. Effective networking has proven to be essential for exchanging methods, data and evaluations of emerging risks. The system piloted has shown some potential for the identification of issues that may give rise to emerging risks, and useful knowledge has been gained in gathering and filtering large amounts of information, and building knowledge networks on emerging risks.

Next steps include the establishment of a standing working group of the Scientific Committee on emerging risks, the reinforcement of the engagement with Member States and Stakeholders, the fine tuning of the methodological framework, and the completion of the projects on the issues identified.

Process validation for Emerging Risks Identification

The Agency conducts a tracking survey among consumers, in order to monitor changes in consumer attitudes towards the Agency and food-related issues. The survey has monitored people’s attitudes since 2001. In spring 2010, research was carried out to help redevelop the tracker survey methodology and questions, so the survey now runs on a biannual basis.

The survey covers five main areas: awareness of the FSA and its responsibilities, trust in the FSA, food-related concerns, awareness of hygiene standards in eating establishments, awareness of initiatives or schemes concerning hygiene standards.

The latest results of the tracker survey show that the main food safety issues that people were concerned with were food hygiene when eating out (38%), food poisoning (32%) and the use of additives in food (28%). Eighty four per cent of respondents were aware of the hygiene standards in the places they ate out in or buy food from. The main way people were aware of the hygiene standards were from the general appearance of the premises (69%), appearance of staff (54%) and its reputation (41%).

When asked questions about the FSA, 81% of respondents reported being aware of the Food Standards Agency. Of these, 85% reported the main issue the FSA is responsible for was ensuring food bought is safe to eat, while 64% reported that they trusted the Agency to do its job.

FSA public attitudes tracker survey

EFSA’s expert database (EDB) was launched on 2008 with the main objective to establish a database of external scientific experts that can be queried in order to enhance its capacity to conduct risk assessments in the areas of food and feed safety (including nutrition, toxicology, chemistry, animal health and welfare, plant protection and plant health). Those experts help EFSA to deliver timely scientific advice of the highest standards to support the policies and decisions of Europe’s risk managers (European Commission, European Parliament and EU Member States).

By consulting experts included in the EDB, EFSA achieves the following goals:

• Enhances the transparency of the process through which experts are invited to participate in its scientific activities.
• Enhances EFSA’s capacity to conduct risk assessments and other scientific activities falling within its remit.
• Responds more effectively and flexibly to the growing workload, particularly in cases where very specialised, unexpected and urgent work may be required.

EFSA has published the Expert Database 2011 Annual Report of Activities, which summaries the activities carried out during 2011:

• During the reporting period, a total of 542 experts were included in the EDB, corresponding to 77.2 % of all submitted applications. In total, there are 3002 experts included by the end of 2011.
• Italy (405), United Kingdom (362), Germany (298), France (226), Netherlands (199) and Spain (184) are the countries presenting the highest number of experts during 2011, corresponding to 55.8 % of all included experts from 64 different countries.
• Despite their overall increase in terms of number of experts, the areas of expertise presenting a lower number of experts remain “New technologies”, “Plant health” and “Genetically modified organisms”, whereas those with the highest number of experts remain the so called “Other areas” and “Food including nutrition”. The main areas of expertise observing higher growth rates during 2011 were “Plant Health”, “Toxicology” and “Exposure Assessment”.
• 58.3 % of MS and EEA/EFTA countries have used the EDB during 2011. The main reason indicated by external users for not having used the EDB was a lack of need for it, given the existence of national scientific advisory bodies and/or expert databases delivering the expertise required.

In summary, the main priority activities for 2012 regarding the EDB will be:

• To continue actively promoting the EDB via ongoing EFSA activities (e.g. calls for expression of interest, and scientific colloquia).
• To foster further cooperation with National Focal Points • Target EDB promotion activities to MS with a relatively low number of experts.
• Explore the use of other routes to promote the EDB, such as the use of social media, the EFSA Journal, and promotion activities targeted to certain professional group.

Expert Database 2011 Annual Report

Lessons learned from the 2011 outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O104:H4 in sprouted seeds.

Report

The objective of these guidelines - a joint initiative of the European Food Safety Authority and national food safety organisations in Europe - is to provide a framework to assist decision-making about appropriate communications approaches in a wide variety of situations that can occur when assessing and communicating on risks related to food safety in Europe. The aim is to provide a common framework applicable for developing communications approaches on risk across public health authorities in different countries.

Guidelines

EFSA’s Scientific Committee has evaluated the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) approach as a tool for providing scientific advice about possible human health risks from low level exposures, its applicability to EFSA’s work, and to advise on any additional data that might be needed to strengthen the underlying basis of the TTC approach. The TTC approach is currently used by EFSA for evaluation of flavouring substances and for the evaluation of relevant pesticide metabolites in groundwater.

The Scientific Committee’s conclusions from this exploration of the TTC approach are as follows:

• In principle, the science supports the application of the TTC approach in any area of chemical risk assessment for which human exposures are low, whether exposure is from deliberate addition or due to contamination. However, for substances for which EU legislation requires the submission of toxicity data, the TTC approach would not be used.
• Within EFSA, the Scientific Committee recommends that the TTC approach can be used to assess impurities, breakdown and reaction products, metabolites, and low-level contaminants in food and feed, where an exposure assessment can be conducted, but on which there are few or no toxicological data.
• For application of the TTC approach it is essential to have exposure assessments that take account of high exposure scenarios, and, where possible, take account of exposure from all routes (including dermal and inhalation) and sources.
• Use of the TTC approach for infants under the age of 6 months, with immature metabolic and excretory systems, should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• When the TTC approach is used, it is important for both risk assessors and risk managers to keep in mind that it is a probability-based screening tool and, in common with other risk assessment approaches, it does not offer complete certainty.

Therefore, for the work of EFSA, the TTC approach is recommended as a useful screening tool either for priority setting or for deciding whether exposure to a substance is so low that the probability of adverse health effects is low and that no further data are necessary.

Scientific Opinion on Toxicological Threshold

Article

This document provides guidance on the practical arrangements necessary to ensure responsiveness of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to the need for urgent advice on food and feed safety. It sets guidance on the identification of urgent situations, introduces two internal response levels, explains how the urgent advice structures are activated, which steps must be followed, who the actors are, and their tasks. The document describes Operational Facilities and other resources for dealing with requests for urgent advice.

Document

This report presents the activities of the EFSA’s Emerging Risks Exchange Network together with a description of the Member States national activities on emerging risks detection. The Network met three times during 2011. The activities of the Network were focused on scientific and generic issues of importance for the exchange of relevant information for the detection of medium- and long-term emerging risks

2011 Report EREN

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) has published data from the Food Consumption Panel, which is being developed in Spain since 1987. These data reflect the volume and spending on food by sector, not the consumer directly, but can be considered a good indication of trends in consumption of the population.

The EFSA working group proposed a revised simplified framework for emerging risk identification including three main steps:

1. preliminary identification of priority emerging issues
2. identification of appropriate data sources and data collection
3. final evaluation and identification of emerging risks.

More info on Emerging Risk porposed methodology

The Food Standards Agency has published its Forward Evidence Plan for 2012. The plan outlines priority science and evidence activities for the coming year, including potential areas for research funding and workshops that will help develop the Agency’s evidence base.

The proposed activities cover a wide range of areas within the Agency’s remit:

• Microbiological food safety, including campylobacter, E.coli, listeria and norovirus
• Future meat controls, and food and feed hygiene policy chemical safety of food, including metals and organic contaminants
• Food law enforcement, including imported foods and food safety management systems
• Various cross-cutting areas, for example social sciences
• Diet and health related work funded by the FSA in Scotland and Northern Ireland

The first calls for research arising from this plan are expected in the next few weeks.

More information

EFSA, FAO and the WHO have published jointly guidance for a harmonised Total Diet Study (TDS) approach.

TDS Guide

This edition of the Annual Epidemiological Report, presents the surveillance data reported to ECDC for 2009.

ECDC Annual Epidemilogical Report 2009

The Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency has published the results obtained from the National Food Consumption Questionaire during 2009 and 2010.

More information

The Fisheries Department of the Basque Government, together with Elika (the Basque Foundation for Agrofood Safety) has published a leaflet with information about the Official Control Program of hygiene in fishing boats.

Leaflet

AESAN (Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency) establishes management adequate measures to minimize food risks and to guarantee health protection to the consumer. In this context, the Agency has identified three specified cases where these measures have to be taken into account:

1. Fish consumption recommendations addressed to sensitive population groups to reduce mercury exposure
2. Vegetables consumption recommendations addressed to sensitive population groups to reduce nitrates exposure
3. Crustaceans consumption recommendations to reduce cadmium exposure

Recommendations mercury in fish

Recommendations nitrates in vegetables

Recommendations cadmium in crustaceans

The European Food Safety Authority has published the Annual Report on the Emerging Risks Exchange Network (EREN) 2010, which was created last year with the aim to be fully prepared to detect, in a systematic and efficient way, medium and long-term emerging risks of relevance for the European food and feed chain.

During 2010, the EREN members, representatives of the Member States being experts in emerging risk identification, presented the activities and achievements on the detection of emerging risks. As result, a number of issues was raised, from the need to take a proportionate approach to communication of emerging risks to the convenience of the need to establish a code of practice for the use of emerging risks information.

Annual Report EREN 2010

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published the summary report containing the outcomes of the EFSA Scientific Colloquium XV on Emerging Risks in Food From Identification to Communication held last October 2010. ELIKA, Basque Food Safety Foundation, was invited as expert due to its know-how on Risk Identification.

The main conclusions on the topics discussed during the Colloquium as follows:

1. Methods for the identification of emerging risks: Principles and methods for emerging risks identification have been formalised in Europe mainly in the context of “Foresight”. Foresight is a well-established process that encompasses a broad range of intelligence activities aimed at enhancing future oriented thinking for strategic planning and policy makers
2. Data types and sources for the identification of emerging risks: The first step is to collect and monitor actively all areas and hazards possibly coming from chemicals, microbes, pests, nutrition, and covering human, animal and plant health in the context of the food chain. Once the data on weak signals have been collected, linking the data is crucial with the involvement of the stakeholders at regional, national and international level. With reference to possible strategies to facilitate data collection, it has been suggested to establish multilateral agreements to share information with member states agencies, but also to develop and customise web-scanning tools, and to establish research programs specifically for the identification of emerging risks.
3. European emerging risk network: The challenge is, therefore, to harmonise terminology and procedures and to develop a network system involving key partners from all interested European, (inter-)national institutions and organizations, and stakeholders, sharing relevant information on emerging risks in real time in a transparent way. For this purpose communication and networking is essential to avoid duplication of efforts.
4. Successful communication with risk managers on emerging risks: When communicating on emerging risks to risk managers a careful consideration of the terminology used is warranted to avoid unnecessary scares and the issues to be transmitted should be carefully selected, avoiding overload of information. The main objective of an emerging risks identification system from a risk management prospective is prevention without creating false expectations or unjustified scares among the members of the public.
5. Potential drivers of change: It is crucial to define drivers of Emerging Risks, because they may act as modifiers of effect on the onset of emerging risks, namely they can either amplify or attenuate the magnitude or frequency of risks arising from various sources. According to likelihood and severity, the participants established globalization and Climate Change as the most important drivers with regards to emerging risks in food and feed safety.

Although the experts agreed that EFSA was the logical body to coordinate and develop the methodological framework for emerging risks identification, they insisted that access to a broad spectrum of experts would be a critical success factor for the Authority´s future work in this area.

EFSA Report on Emerging Risk Identification

Strong cooperation with Member States remains crucial for EFSA to ensure that consumer protection and health policy are supported by the most robust scientific evidence available. Therefore, the Scientific Cooperation Unit has published this technical report which summarises scientific cooperation activities of EFSA and Member States worked out in the four priority areas identified at the 2006 EFSA Strategy for Cooperation and Networking.

Under Article 36 of EFSA’s Founding Regulation, the Authority can award grants to organisations of Member States to assist EFSA in its scientific activities. The Advisory Forum, Focal Points, and dedicated networks are key vehicles for data and information exchange, consultation, and work sharing between EFSA and Members States.

This document is addressed to organisations in Member States to reflect on which areas of cooperation in food safety they wish to prioritise.

1. In the area of contaminants in the food chain, Member States cooperate with EFSA by submitting occurrence data for various contaminants in food and/or feed (e.g. heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and marine biotoxins).

2. In the area of biological hazards, Member States take place through the networks on spongiform encephalopathies (BSE-TSE) and the Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA).

3. In the area of pesticides, Member Estates cooperate with EFSA in the EU peer review of active substances used in plant protection products.

4. In the area of genetically modified organisms (GMO), authorities of Member States have volunteered to take charge of the initial Environmental Risk assessment (ERA) of GMO applications for cultivation.

Technical Report Scientific Cooperation EFSA-Member States

Clarity of scientific advice is vital if public authorities are to make the best risk management decisions and if these are to be understood and widely supported by stakeholders, consumers and industry alike. For this reason, EFSA has been recognised the need for a harmonisation of terms and expressions used in scientific opinions as a key element as a part of good risk assessment practices.

EFSA has commissioned FERA (Food and Environment British Research Agency) to perform a comparative review of terms of expression of benefit, efficacy, risk and/or uncertainties in abstract, concluding and summary sections of 219 opinions issued by the Scientific Committee and Panels of EFSA published between 2008 and the beginning of 2010.

As a result, the great majority of the identified descriptors (3557/3888) in the database were qualitative. In consequence, FERA suggests including in each document a glossary of the qualitative terms and indicating some type of boundaries for each of these terms. Thus, the employment of such glossaries could improve the communication of the assessments’ outputs to risk managers and the public.

Report on Terminology in EFSA Risk Assessments

ACSA Report about "Who pays for mistakes in risk communication?".

Report

The European Food Safety Authority has organized the 15th Scientific Colloquium on Emerging Risk in Food from Identification to Communication. ELIKA, Basque Food Safety Foundation, has been invited as expert due to the know-how on Emerging Risk Identification at European and Basque regional level.

The main objective of the Colloquium is to provide inputs from international experts for the development of EFSA’s methodological framework for emerging risks identification. Firstly, introductory presentations on Emerging Risk Identification were exposed. EFSA pointed out the importance and necessity of exchanging data, methodologies and lessons learnt on emerging risks through an Emerging Risks Exchange Network.

Secondly, discussions will focus on four main topics, namely on available methods to identify emerging risks, strategic sources of information and strategies for data collection, identification of drivers of change as underling causes of emerging risks, and on opportunities for the establishment of an international network to communicate on emerging risks. The outcomes of the Colloquium will be summarised in an overall report and published early next year.

Colloquium Presentations

Emerging Risk Networks

The Scientific Committee of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) developed guidance for performing risk-benefit assessments of food. A stepwise approach is recommended for the risk-benefit assessment, i) initial assessment, addressing the question whether the health risks clearly outweigh the health benefits or vice versa, ii) refined assessment, aiming at providing semi-quantitative or quantitative estimates of risks and benefits at relevant exposure by using common metrics, and iii) comparison of risks and benefits using a composite metric such as DALYs or QALYs to express the outcome of the risk-benefit assessment as a single net health impact value.

After each step of the risk-benefit assessment, discussion and close collaboration should take place between the risk-benefit assessor and the risk-benefit manager on whether sufficient information has been provided or whether the terms of reference should be refined in order to proceed with the next step of the assessment. Two examples (selenium as an indispensable nutrient, and fish consumption) illustrate the proposed approach.

Guidance on risk-benefit assessment of foods

After the publication of the “Guidance on human health risk-benefit assessment of foods”, in line with EFSA’s policy on openness and transparency and in order for EFSA to receive comments from the scientific community and stakeholders on its work, EFSA engages in a public consultation on the mentioned guidance, receiving 280 submissions from 19 interested parties (non-governmental organisations, industry organizations and national assessment bodies), which are compiled in the attached document.

Public consultation results on the guidance

FAO and WHO held an Expert Consultation on the Risks and Benefits of Fish Consumption last January 2010. Seventeen experts in nutrition, toxicology, epidemiology, dietary exposure and risk-benefit assessments, examined the risks from MeHg and DLCs, including dioxins, furans and dioxin-like PCBs levels in a range of fish species, and review recent scientific literature covering the risks and benefits of fish consumption.

The output is intended to provide guidance to national food safety authorities and the Codex Alimentarius Commission to better assess and manage the risks and benefits of fish consumption and more effectively communicate with their citizens:

• Acknowledge fish consumption as an important food source of energy, protein, and a range of essential nutrients and part of the cultural traditions of many peoples.
• Emphasize the benefits of fish consumption on reducing CHD mortality (and CHD mortality risks of not eating fish) for the general adult population.
• Emphasize the neurodevelopment benefits to offspring of fish consumption by women of childbearing age, particularly pregnant women and nursing mothers, and the neurodevelopment risks to offspring of such women not consuming fish.
• Develop, maintain, and improve existing databases on specific nutrients and contaminants, particularly MeHg and DLCs, in fish consumed in their region.
• Develop and evaluate risk management and communication strategies that both minimize risks and maximize benefits from eating fish.

FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Risks vs Benefits of Fish Consumption Summary

The Assessment Methodology Unit of EFSA has developed a guidance to assess the available systematic review methods for the systematic evaluation of food and feed safety research, and to evaluate their potential use when doing risk assessments to support decision making in food and feed safety. The Guidance provides suggestions and examples to the Risk Managers for the conduct of eight key steps in the systematic review process to answer questions generated by the risk assessment process or deal with broad food and feed safety policy problems.

Assessment methodology for decision making

This guide, issued by the WHO, presents guidelines for risk characterization of microbiological hazards in foods. These guidelines provide descriptive guidance on how to conduct risk characterization in various contexts, and utilizing a variety of tools and techniques. They have been developed in recognition of the fact that a reliable estimation of risk is critical to the overall risk assessment.

OMS guide

Mercasa has published the Guide "Alimentación en España, 2009" where production and consumption data from differents sectors and Autonomous Communities are offered.

Full Guide

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued new advice to pregnant women on daily caffeine consumption. The amount of caffeine in food and drink will vary, but as a guide each of these contains roughly 200mg or less of caffeine: 2 mugs of instant coffee (100mg each), 1 mug of filter coffee (140mg each), 2 mugs of tea (75mg each), 5 cans of cola (up to 40mg each), 2 cans of ''''energy'''' drink (up to 80mg each) or 4 (50g) bars of plain chocolate (up to 50 mg each).

COT Report

The present review has examined New Zealand Food Standard Agency´s (NZFSA) recently updated Risk Management Framework and how it has been applied in some recent high-profile food safety issues in New Zealand. This Risk Management Framework has also been compared with international guidelines on best practice and the food safety systems used in Denmark, Ireland and Sweden.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has developed the Concise database gathering data on average daily consumption of foods per person sourced from the Member States. The intention of the concise database is to provide a valuable first screening tool to EFSA, its Scientific Panels, and potentially to other scientists in Member States, to help carry out preliminary exposure assessments.

Data-Base

This report illustrates how the FSA commissions and uses its science and evidence knowledge to drive food safety policy and advice, by reducing the incidence of foodborne diseases.

The report includes information on trends and statistics on the major species of foodborne pathogens, notably Campylobacter, Listeria, Norovirus, Salmonella and E. coli, and actions that are being taken in collaboration with the food industry to reduce levels of microbiological contamination in food. Also, the use of science of toxicology to ensure that consumers are not exposed to unsafe levels of chemicals in food is explained.

Moreover, FSA´s work on food allergy and intolerance is described, its social science research into attitudes and behaviours to food, and 'next generation' scientific detection techniques which could make the investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks quicker and more effective in the future. FSA has been working with, and funding, a number of national and international partners to inform and prepare the Agency for future emerging risks.

Summary tables with information about all of the science and evidence-gathering projects funded by FSA in the past year, including financial information, can be accessed in Annexe A.

Annual Report of the FSA Chief Scientist

Nordic dietary surveys 17/09/12 National dietary surveys have been completed in all five Nordic countries for purposes of nutritional assessment. The NORDIRA project started in 2009 with objectives of sharing experiences within collection of food consumption data and applications of it in food-based risk assessment. The NORDIRA-group consisted of experts working within dietary surveys as well within risk assessment.

The project collected results and methodological aspects of national dietary surveys, the presentations of food consumption figures and data calculation processes of risk assessment. This TemaNord report is a summary of the presentations and experiences shared during the three year period of the NORDIRA project.

The group emphasizes a flexible food aggregation system in reporting food consumption to enable different kind of matching of data from food consumption and occurence of chemical substances: caffeine, sweeteners, food preservatives, pesticides, methylmercury, perfluorinated compound, dioxins,cadmium and heterocyclic amines

NORDIRA-Nordic dietary surveys

The Agency conducts a tracking survey among consumers, in order to monitor changes in consumer attitudes towards the Agency and food-related issues. The survey has monitored people’s attitudes since 2001. In spring 2010, research was carried out to help redevelop the tracker survey methodology and questions, so the survey now runs on a biannual basis.

The survey covers five main areas: awareness of the FSA and its responsibilities, trust in the FSA, food-related concerns, awareness of hygiene standards in eating establishments, awareness of initiatives or schemes concerning hygiene standards.

The latest results of the tracker survey show that the main food safety issues that people were concerned with were food hygiene when eating out (38%), food poisoning (32%) and the use of additives in food (28%). Eighty four per cent of respondents were aware of the hygiene standards in the places they ate out in or buy food from. The main way people were aware of the hygiene standards were from the general appearance of the premises (69%), appearance of staff (54%) and its reputation (41%).

When asked questions about the FSA, 81% of respondents reported being aware of the Food Standards Agency. Of these, 85% reported the main issue the FSA is responsible for was ensuring food bought is safe to eat, while 64% reported that they trusted the Agency to do its job.

FSA public attitudes tracker survey

EFSA’s expert database (EDB) was launched on 2008 with the main objective to establish a database of external scientific experts that can be queried in order to enhance its capacity to conduct risk assessments in the areas of food and feed safety (including nutrition, toxicology, chemistry, animal health and welfare, plant protection and plant health). Those experts help EFSA to deliver timely scientific advice of the highest standards to support the policies and decisions of Europe’s risk managers (European Commission, European Parliament and EU Member States).

By consulting experts included in the EDB, EFSA achieves the following goals:

• Enhances the transparency of the process through which experts are invited to participate in its scientific activities.
• Enhances EFSA’s capacity to conduct risk assessments and other scientific activities falling within its remit.
• Responds more effectively and flexibly to the growing workload, particularly in cases where very specialised, unexpected and urgent work may be required.

EFSA has published the Expert Database 2011 Annual Report of Activities, which summaries the activities carried out during 2011:

• During the reporting period, a total of 542 experts were included in the EDB, corresponding to 77.2 % of all submitted applications. In total, there are 3002 experts included by the end of 2011.
• Italy (405), United Kingdom (362), Germany (298), France (226), Netherlands (199) and Spain (184) are the countries presenting the highest number of experts during 2011, corresponding to 55.8 % of all included experts from 64 different countries.
• Despite their overall increase in terms of number of experts, the areas of expertise presenting a lower number of experts remain “New technologies”, “Plant health” and “Genetically modified organisms”, whereas those with the highest number of experts remain the so called “Other areas” and “Food including nutrition”. The main areas of expertise observing higher growth rates during 2011 were “Plant Health”, “Toxicology” and “Exposure Assessment”.
• 58.3 % of MS and EEA/EFTA countries have used the EDB during 2011. The main reason indicated by external users for not having used the EDB was a lack of need for it, given the existence of national scientific advisory bodies and/or expert databases delivering the expertise required.

In summary, the main priority activities for 2012 regarding the EDB will be:

• To continue actively promoting the EDB via ongoing EFSA activities (e.g. calls for expression of interest, and scientific colloquia).
• To foster further cooperation with National Focal Points • Target EDB promotion activities to MS with a relatively low number of experts.
• Explore the use of other routes to promote the EDB, such as the use of social media, the EFSA Journal, and promotion activities targeted to certain professional group.

Expert Database 2011 Annual Report

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) has published data from the Food Consumption Panel, which is being developed in Spain since 1987. These data reflect the volume and spending on food by sector, not the consumer directly, but can be considered a good indication of trends in consumption of the population.

The Food Standards Agency has published its Forward Evidence Plan for 2012. The plan outlines priority science and evidence activities for the coming year, including potential areas for research funding and workshops that will help develop the Agency’s evidence base.

The proposed activities cover a wide range of areas within the Agency’s remit:

• Microbiological food safety, including campylobacter, E.coli, listeria and norovirus
• Future meat controls, and food and feed hygiene policy chemical safety of food, including metals and organic contaminants
• Food law enforcement, including imported foods and food safety management systems
• Various cross-cutting areas, for example social sciences
• Diet and health related work funded by the FSA in Scotland and Northern Ireland

The first calls for research arising from this plan are expected in the next few weeks.

More information

Strong cooperation with Member States remains crucial for EFSA to ensure that consumer protection and health policy are supported by the most robust scientific evidence available. Therefore, the Scientific Cooperation Unit has published this technical report which summarises scientific cooperation activities of EFSA and Member States worked out in the four priority areas identified at the 2006 EFSA Strategy for Cooperation and Networking.

Under Article 36 of EFSA’s Founding Regulation, the Authority can award grants to organisations of Member States to assist EFSA in its scientific activities. The Advisory Forum, Focal Points, and dedicated networks are key vehicles for data and information exchange, consultation, and work sharing between EFSA and Members States.

This document is addressed to organisations in Member States to reflect on which areas of cooperation in food safety they wish to prioritise.

1. In the area of contaminants in the food chain, Member States cooperate with EFSA by submitting occurrence data for various contaminants in food and/or feed (e.g. heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and marine biotoxins).

2. In the area of biological hazards, Member States take place through the networks on spongiform encephalopathies (BSE-TSE) and the Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA).

3. In the area of pesticides, Member Estates cooperate with EFSA in the EU peer review of active substances used in plant protection products.

4. In the area of genetically modified organisms (GMO), authorities of Member States have volunteered to take charge of the initial Environmental Risk assessment (ERA) of GMO applications for cultivation.

Technical Report Scientific Cooperation EFSA-Member States

The European Food Safety Authority has organized the 15th Scientific Colloquium on Emerging Risk in Food from Identification to Communication. ELIKA, Basque Food Safety Foundation, has been invited as expert due to the know-how on Emerging Risk Identification at European and Basque regional level.

The main objective of the Colloquium is to provide inputs from international experts for the development of EFSA’s methodological framework for emerging risks identification. Firstly, introductory presentations on Emerging Risk Identification were exposed. EFSA pointed out the importance and necessity of exchanging data, methodologies and lessons learnt on emerging risks through an Emerging Risks Exchange Network.

Secondly, discussions will focus on four main topics, namely on available methods to identify emerging risks, strategic sources of information and strategies for data collection, identification of drivers of change as underling causes of emerging risks, and on opportunities for the establishment of an international network to communicate on emerging risks. The outcomes of the Colloquium will be summarised in an overall report and published early next year.

Colloquium Presentations

Emerging Risk Networks

Mercasa has published the Guide "Alimentación en España, 2009" where production and consumption data from differents sectors and Autonomous Communities are offered.

Full Guide

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has developed the Concise database gathering data on average daily consumption of foods per person sourced from the Member States. The intention of the concise database is to provide a valuable first screening tool to EFSA, its Scientific Panels, and potentially to other scientists in Member States, to help carry out preliminary exposure assessments.

Data-Base