Friday, 26 March 2021
New regulation on transparency and sustainability in the EU food safety system
A new regulation on transparency and sustainability of EU risk assessment in the food chain was passed by the European Parliament and Council of the EU and it will apply from 27 March 2021. It aims at increasing the transparency of EU risk assessment in the food chain, on strengthening the reliability, objectivity and independence of the studies used by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and, revisiting the governance of EFSA in order to ensure its long-term sustainability.
The regulation will reinforce EFSA’s ability to carry out its risk assessments in accordance with the highest transparency standards. It will also strengthen the reliability and transparency of the scientific studies submitted to EFSA. Among other things, the new regulation:
- allows citizens access to scientific studies and information submitted to EFSA by industry early in the process of risk assessment
- embeds public consultations in the process for assessing applications for approval of regulated products
- ensures that EFSA is notified of all commissioned studies in a particular area to guarantee that companies applying for authorisations submit all relevant information
- gives the European Commission the option of asking EFSA to procure additional studies
Among other initiatives to support implementation of the regulation, EFSA has rolled out new tools and a dedicated web portal to help stakeholders adapt to the new arrangements. The new portal will be live from 30 March 2021.
For more information, please see:
European Food Safety Authority
European Commission
Regulation (EU) 2019/1381
