Transparency of Food Risk Affairs

27 September 2022

The decision-making and risk assessment processes carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European body conducting the risk assessment of products entering the European food chain, are currently perceived as opaque by organisations representing EU citizens and several Member States. Indeed, rules concerning confidentiality in the risk assessment do not enable sufficient transparency and thus prevents the population from trusting the process. Considering that most data and studies that EFSA relies upon in the evaluation of authorisation dossiers are paid and generated by the applicant for the authorisation, concerns regarding the transparency and independence of these data and studies can legitimately be raised.

Answering to the need to address the lack of transparency and independence of EFSA, the European Commission has taken the initiative to amend the General Food Law.

As a representant of consumer’s interest and as a member of EFSA’s Stakeholder Discussion Group on Emerging Risks, of the EFSA Technical Group on Database of Notification of Studies and of the EFSA Stakeholder Sounding Board for the implementation of the revised General Food Law, SAFE applauds this initiative and encourages the strict application of this new regulation, in order to strengthen the transparency and independence of the risk assessment carried out by EFSA.