Brussels, 01/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended on Friday 29 January that the risk assessment of chemicals present in materials that come into contact with foodstuffs should, in future, be more stringent and take greater account of substances that migrate from these materials to the foodstuffs.
The scientific opinion developed by EFSA's expert Panel on Food Contact Materials (CEF) reflects the most recent scientific data and stakeholder feedback from a public consultation. The Commission will discuss it with the competent authorities in the member states prior to new guidance being issued by EFSA on the risk assessment of substances in food contact materials.
EFSA recommends that:
Identification and evaluation of all substances that migrate should focus more on the finished materials and articles, including the manufacturing process used, rather than concentrating on the substances used;
In order to better estimate consumer exposure, four default food categories driven by infants' and toddlers' food consumption, that are approximately 9, 5, 3 and 1.2 times higher than the current default for consumption (i.e. 17 grams/kilogram of body weight per day) should be set; using these default categories would give a higher level of protection for consumers, particularly for infants and toddlers;
The amount of toxicity data needed should be related to the expected human exposure: the CEF Panel proposes three threshold levels of human exposure, namely 1.5, 30 and 80 micrograms/kilogram of body weight per day, as triggers for the requirement for additional toxicity data - this applies in principle to all migrating substances, i.e. both intentionally and non-intentionally added substances (including oligomers);
Genotoxicity testing for substances used in food contact materials should be obligatory, even if their migration into food leads to a low exposure; alternative methods to animal testing should be used more.
HEAL calls for ban on endocrine disruptors. At a conference in the European Parliament on 26 January, several speakers, including Lisette van Vliet, senior policy advisor of the NGO Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), expressed the view that “current EU legislation of food contact materials is not fit for its purpose of protecting public health”. They called, therefore, for regulation of all types of food contact materials banning endocrine disruptors and other substances of very high concern, as defined by the REACH regulation, which are carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic to reproduction or biocumulative. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)