On Thursday 12 May the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published its scientific opinion on the identification and prioritisation of plasticising substances in food contact materials (FCMs) for risk reassessment and a protocol for consumer exposure assessment.
As part of the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, this scientific opinion was requested by the European Commission to prepare the reassessment of the health risks associated with plasticisers such as phthalates, other structurally similar substances and phthalate substitutes in FCMs.
The opinion focuses on plasticisers used in different types of FCMs (such as plastics, rubber and inks) throughout the food chain, including in food processing equipment and packaging.
Only substances that are authorised for use in FCMs at European or national level have been prioritised for reassessment. The classification into three groups was made on the basis of the most recent assessment of these substances as FCM substances: - ‘High priority’ if the assessment is before 2001; - ‘Medium priority’ for an assessment carried out between 2001 and 2011; - ‘Low priority’ if the assessment has been made since 2011.
EFSA will issue calls for data on the presence of priority substances in food and FCMs before the summer to refine the prioritisation and calculate exposure estimates for risk assessments.
The Scientific Protocol for exposure assessment of priority substances details the approach that EFSA scientists intend to use to retrieve and select data and to include and analyse the evidence for exposure estimates (including dietary exposure, aggregate exposure and the contribution of FCMs to exposure).
See the EFSA scientific opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/1m2 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)