The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) held a stakeholder workshop on April 1-2, 2019, on the implementation of its guidance on the risk assessment of applications of nanosciences and nanotechnologies in the food and feed chain.  As reported in our July 5, 2018, blog item, “EFSA Publishes New Guidance on Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed,” in July 2018, EFSA published new guidance on how to assess the safety of nanoscience and nanotechnology applications.  The guidance covers novel foods, food contact materials, food and feed additives, and pesticides, taking into account new developments that have taken place since publication of the previous guidance in 2011.  The workshop was an opportunity for stakeholders, EFSA, and its experts to have an open discussion and share their experiences on implementing the EFSA guidance, focusing on human and animal health.  The workshop was attended by 60 participants, who discussed the challenges they have faced implementing the guidance and shared examples of good practice.  Stakeholders made suggestions on some sections of the guidance, which were noted for consideration by EFSA’s Working Group on Nanotechnologies.  EFSA has posted the following presentations from the workshop:

• “The EFSA guidance on the risk assessment of the application of nanoscience and nanotechnologies in the food and feed chain,” Reinhilde Schoonjans, EFSA;
• “Supporting applicants in the area of regulated products (REPRO),” Remigio Marano, EFSA;
• “Overview of the EFSA Guidance on risk assessment of the application of nanoscience and nanotechnologies in the food and feed chain,” Francesco Cubadda, Consortium of Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) (Italy), Working Group Member;
• “Validation and Implementation of an Analytical Methodology to Characterize the Fraction of Nano-Sized Particles in E171 and E174,” Jan Mast, Sciensano;
• “Report on E171 (titanium dioxide) and E172 (iron oxide) – analytical perspectives from research,” David Brizzolara, Titanium Dioxide Manufacturers Association (TDMA);
• “Implementation issues related to the EFSA GD: Questions received from stakeholders,” Hubert Rauscher, Joint Research Center;
• “Characterisation and quantification in matrix: Focus on Chapters 4.3-4.4, including solubility and degradation/dissolution rate,” Francesco Cubadda, ISS (Italy), WG Member;
• “Physical Chemical Characterization of Nanomaterials,” Jürgen Nolde (presented by Bjoern Braun), Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH (Germany);
• “Food and Feed Ingredient Submissions: The Importance of Particle Size — Understanding and Interpreting EFSA’s Guidance on Nanotechnologies,” Nigel Baldwin, Intertek (United Kingdom);
• “Focus on Chapters 5 & 6 covering Oral Exposure Assessment and Hazard identification/characterisation,” Alicja Mortensen, National Research Center for the Working Environment (NRCWE) (Denmark);
• “Intestinal uptake of particles,” Klaus Weber, AnaPath GmbH (Switzerland), and Nils Krueger, Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH (Germany);
• “Nanomaterials in the EU Food Regulations,” Takis Daskaleros, European Commission (EC); and
• “Bottlenecks faced in the industry and multi-disciplinary approach in risk assessment of nanomaterials: A Regulatory perspective,” Dr. David Carlander, Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) (Belgium).

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