Purpose: In 2010, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) established an Emerging Risks Exchange Network (EREN) and a Stakeholder Consultative Group on Emerging Risk (StaCG-ER) to exchange information on possible emerging risks for food and feed safety between EFSA and the Member states (MSs) and between EFSA and the civil society and private sector, respectively.
Methods: EREN is composed of delegates from 21 MSs and Norway. The StaCG-ER comprises 19 members belonging to consumer associations and organisations representing the food, livestock and agricultural industry. The two groups contribute to the identification of emerging issues, the collection of data and its assessment. The two networks meet twice a year and assess identified issues using a standard template.
Results: Between 2010 and 2015 EREN and StaCG-ER assessed a total of 86 signals of potential emerging issues. Out of these, 39 were identified by EFSA, 37 by MSs and 10 by civil society. The issues discussed were mainly microbiological and chemical hazards, but also food safety issues such as those resulting from illegal activity, new consumption trends, biotoxins, new technologies and processes, allergens, animal health, environmental pollution, new analytical methods, new food packaging technology and unknown hazards. Based on the available evidence, the networks recommended whether an issue merited follow up actions, such as generation of new data, a full risk assessment and/or consultation with other bodies. The methodology developed to preliminarily assess signals of potential emerging issues is presented and discussed with two case studies.
Significance: The increasing number of issues identified over the years shows the value of such knowledge networks as information sources to identify emerging risks.