Industry views sought on ways to assess risk of nanomaterials in feed

25-Oct-2022 - Last updated on 25-Oct-2022 at 17:14 GMT

EFSA is inviting industry stakeholders to exchange their views on the update of its guidance on risk pertaining to users and workers from the use of feed additives and it also wants them to weigh in on its guidance for the assessment of nanomaterials in feed.

The comments generated will inform the future work of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in this regard.

The meeting will be a hybrid event, in that participants can either attend in person at EFSA’s headquarters in Parma in Italy, or they can access the discussion via a live-streaming option. The event will run for a maximum of three hours in the afternoon of November 24.

EFSA said participants, as part of the registration process, can submit questions they would like to have addressed during the meeting.

It will follow the open session of the FEEDAP panel’s plenary gathering on the same date. Stakeholders can also register to attend that session, either on site or online.

Guidance documents

EFSA said the consultation with industry is part of the FEEDAP panel’s output aimed at helping applicants in the preparation and submission of technical dossiers for the authorisation and the renewal of feed additives. Those experts have recently started to revise guidance on studies concerning the safety of use of feed additives in animal nutriton for users and workers.

In 2021, EFSA revamped its guidance on the risk assessment of nanomaterials to be applied in the food and feed chain: human and animal health – that covers considerations for the assessment of engineered nanomaterials, nanostructured materials, nanocarriers, and conventional materials containing a fraction of nanoparticles requiring assessment at the nanoscale.

Following a mandate from the EU Commission, the Authority issued a second document: one providing technical requirements for regulated food and feed product applications to establish the presence of small particles including nanoparticles for conventional materials, those that are not nanoengineered. EFSA said that publication covers different appraisal routes that applicants and other interested parties may use for demonstrating that their material does not contain a fraction of nanoparticles or that the fraction is covered by existing safety studies.