On May 31, 2017 the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Scientific Committee (SC) published a new guidance on “The risk assessment of substances present in food intended for infants below 16 weeks of age.” EFSA informed in its news article that “the guidance will apply from now on to EFSA assessments linked to food safety,” including evaluations of food additives, pesticide residues, contaminants, and food contact materials (FCMs). EFSA further noted that feedback from a public consultation, open from February 20 to March 31, 2017, was taken into consideration by the SC in finalizing the guidance (FPF reported). The outcome of the public consultation is summarized in a separate report.
“The first weeks of life is the time of the highest relative consumption on a body weight basis,” the guidance explains. Therefore, the EFSA SC proposes to use a high consumption value of 260 mL/kg body weight per for carrying out exposure assessments. The guidance further presents a decision tree approach for the risk assessment of substances present in infant food. Regarding toxicity testing, the guidance lays out additional information requirements for substances used in infant food. Also, the guidance discusses considerations for the risk assessment of substances not intentionally added to infant food.
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EFSA (May 31, 2017). “Latest science further protects infants.”
References
EFSA (May 31, 2017). “Guidance on the risk assessment of substances present in food intended for infants below 16 weeks of age.” EFSA Journal 15(5):4849.
EFSA (May 31, 2017). “Outcome of a public consultation on the draft guidance on the risk assessment of substances present in food intended for infants below 16 weeks of age.” EFSA Supporting Publications 14(5):1248E.
