The European Commission (EC) has launched a call for the next Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Eligible candidates are invited to apply by 26 June 2023.

The Executive Director is the legal representative and public face of EFSA and is accountable to the EFSA Management Board. She/he leads and manages the agency and has the overall responsibility for its operations. The appointment is for a period of five years, renewable once for an additional period of five years.

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Microplastics in food is the primary concern for people in Germany followed by antibiotic resistance, according to a survey. Pesticides in food were also a very high concern for 57 percent of people surveyed.

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Fifty cases of Cryptosporidium have been traced to a farm on an island off the south coast of England.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)’s South East branch has tried to contact people who visited Hazelgrove Farm from April to the start of May on the Isle of Wight.

People are thought to have become sick after coming into contact with animals. The farm halted animal petting activity in early May.

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Helping Europeans to make confident food choices by explaining the science behind food safety is at the heart of the EU Choose Safe Food campaign.

The EU food safety system is built on scientific advice provided by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in close cooperation with national food safety authorities across Europe.
EFSA works with top scientists from the EU and beyond who analyse, assess, and advise, based on the latest evidence, what food is safe and if it poses any risks for consumers.

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What is One Health?

Our societies face multiple health challenges from current and emerging threats such as antimicrobial resistance, infectious diseases crossing between animals and humans, impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. One Health recognises that humans, animals, plants, and the wider environment are inter-linked. The One Health High Level Expert Panel defines One Health as being “an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognises the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment are closely linked and inter-dependent.”

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The main objective of the call is to conclude Framework Partnership Agreements with multiple organisations belonging to the Article 36 list that will support EFSA in producing retrospective CRAs in the next 4 years. Two lots (hazard assessment and exposure assessment) are proposed.

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The Government in the United Kingdom has dropped plans to get rid of European laws by the end of 2023.

The Retained EU Law Bill (REUL) will be amended, removing a clause that would have scrapped any EU-derived laws that hadn’t already been replaced, repealed, or integrated into UK domestic law by December.   

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The EU Commission has announced plans to speed up the deregulation of plants derived from new genomic techniques (NGTs or New GE).

In a letter to the non-profit organization Testbiotech, the Commission claimed that risks associated with unintended genetic changes caused by NGTs have already been addressed. Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said she will propose draft legislation before the summer break to accelerate the introduction of New GE plants.

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The European Commission replaced its regulation on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food (Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006) with a new one (Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023) that will enter into force from 15 May 2023 and it will be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has taken major steps to endorse a new route to qualification for those wanting to embark on or further their career in food standards and trading standards.

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Food safety and foodborne diseases are one of four themes covered in an FAO report on products of animal origin. FAO is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

FAO’s Committee on Agriculture (COAG) asked the FAO to produce an assessment on the contribution of livestock to food security, sustainable food systems, nutrition, and healthy diets. The first part focuses on the downstream impacts of terrestrial animal source food consumption as part of healthy diets. It covers four areas including food safety and foodborne diseases as well as emerging issues.

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Aberdeen, Scotland – A range of food safety challenges and opportunities were touched on by the chief scientific advisor of Food Standards Scotland (FSS) at a major conference held this week.

Speaking at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) European Symposium in Aberdeen, Professor David Gally said there are financial, social, and political issues that impact the food chain.

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Different stakeholders have shared positive and negative opinions on the food hygiene rating system in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The research covers the views of local authorities, businesses, and consumers on the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) and was published recently by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

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After the success of the first Science Meets Policy virtual conference in September 2020 (over 500 participants from 49 countries), EFSA and the European Commission’s Inter-European Union Reference Laboratories (EURLs) Working Group on Whole Genome Sequencing are jointly organising the second event in the series. EFSA will host the event in its premises in Parma, Italy on 5 and 6 September 2023.

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Dietary exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) is a health concern for consumers across all age groups, EFSA’s scientific experts have concluded in a new re-evaluation.

In an extensive assessment of the scientific evidence, and after input from a public consultation, EFSA’s experts identified potentially harmful health effects on the immune system.

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The European food sector has called for different methods to be used more in scientific and regulatory risk assessments.

FoodDrinkEurope said New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) can improve the relevance of data available for food safety risk assessment and avoids animal use. NAMs are any non-animal based approaches that can help provide toxicological information in chemical hazard assessments.

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Comparing foodborne illness rates between countries can be misleading because of differences in methodology and data sources, according to a study.

Foodborne illness estimation models are country-specific, making international comparisons problematic. Some disparities in estimated rates can be attributed to variations in methodology rather than real differences in risk, said scientists.

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The number of samples with pesticide residues above the legal limit has gone down in the European Union compared to the year before.

Almost 88,000 samples were collected in Europe in 2021. Overall, 96 percent of them fell within legally permitted levels. Almost 35,000 samples contained residues not exceeding legal limits.

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The chicken industry, represented by the Washington D.C.-based National Chicken Council, is letting the world know it has “grave concerns” about USDA’s plans to declare Salmonella an adulterant in frozen, raw, breaded stuffed poultry products.

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A series of Salmonella outbreaks in the United Kingdom caused by breaded chicken products from Poland could have affected up to 5,000 people, officials have revealed.

The UK-wide outbreaks resulted in more than 1,000 confirmed illnesses in 2020 and 2021 with potentially as many as 4,000 additional cases which were not confirmed or reported.

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