The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP Panel) published the minutes of the 26th to 28th meetings of its Working Group on Food Contact Materials (WG-FCM) held in November 2021 and January and April 2022. The panel reviews draft opinions on new food contact materials and chemicals at each meeting, as well as how applications submitted to EFSA will be reviewed after implementation of the transparency regulation. The most recent meeting also discussed the safety assessment of compounds and mixtures of natural origin.
Furthermore, the EFSA CEP Panel published the minutes of the 61st through 65th meetings of its Working Group on bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7) re-evaluation (WG-BPA) held from late October 2021 to early April 2022. Work within the WG-BPA concerns the “re-evaluation of the risks to public health related to the presence of BPA in foodstuffs and protocol for the risk assessment strategy.” Meetings in late 2021 continued the discussion on genotoxicity. The working group held a break-out session with genotoxicity experts to address the methodology for performing uncertainty analysis which was approved at the next meeting by the WG-BPA.
The WG-BPA published the draft results of the BPA re-evaluation in December 2021. The CEP Panel suggested lowering the amount of BPA considered safe to be “ingested daily over a lifetime without appreciable risk,” from 4 µg/kg body weight/day to 0.00004 µg/kg body weight/day (FPF reported). In January, the WG-BPA held a technical meeting for stakeholders to discuss the opinion (FPF reported). The two subsequent meetings of the WG-BPA were primarily dedicated to reviewing the feedback received from stakeholders in January.
The Working Group on Recycling Plastic (WG-RP), had seven meetings across late 2021 and early 2022. Since January 2022, the panel published safety assessments of 20 processes for recycling post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for use in food contact materials.
The working group on preparation for re-evaluation of phthalates, structurally similar substances, and replacement substances held their 20th through 30th meetings. EFSA’s draft opinion on prioritization of phthalates used in food contact which was published in November 2021 (FPF reported, also here). After the public comment period closed in December 2021, meetings have focused on reviewing and responding to comments, along with editing the opinion.
The newest EFSA CEP Panel, on extraction solvents, met for the 5th time in December 2021. The meeting continued discussion on the safety evaluation of 2-methyloxolane as an extraction solvent.
Read more
EFSA CEP Panel. “Minutes of the meetings of the working group on food contact materials 2018-2021.” (pdf)
EFSA CEP Panel. “Minutes of the meetings of the working group on BPA re-evaluation.” (pdf)
EFSA CEP Panel. “Minutes of the meetings of the working group on recycling plastics 2018-2021.” (pdf)
EFSA CEP Panel. “Minutes of the meetings of the working group on preparation for re-evaluation of phthalates, structurally similar substances and replacement substances.” (pdf)
EFSA CEP Panel. “Minutes of the meetings of the working group on extraction solvents.” (pdf)
EFSA CEP Panel. “Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids.”
