The European Commission adopted, on Friday 3 March, in the context of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, an implementing regulation amending Regulation EC/1881/2006 in order to lower the maximum permitted levels for food products contributing to arsenic exposure.
The decision follows the publication of an opinion by the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM), which concluded that the 2015 provisional tolerable weekly intake of 15 μg/kg body weight was no longer appropriate. Adverse effects of arsenic had been found at exposure levels below this level.
Arsenic is a metalloid found in low concentrations in soils, rocks and natural groundwater. This concentration is increased locally in the environment by certain human activities. Arsenic can cause bladder, lung and skin cancers, among other things.
For EFSA, the main sources of dietary exposure to inorganic arsenic are rice, rice products, cereals, cereal products not containing rice and drinking water.
This exposure is increased in high rice consumers and in children under three years of age, who are more exposed through the consumption of certain foods indicated for children.
The implementing act specifies that due to the long shelf-life of some of these foods, those that were legally marketed before the date of application of the Regulation should be allowed to remain on the market.
Link to the draft implementing regulation setting the new rates: https://aeur.eu/f/5mn (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)