Development of a novel scoring system for identifying emerging chemical risks in the food chain
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for risk assessment of all aspects of food safety, including the establishment of procedures aimed at the identification of emerging risks to food safety. Here, a scoring system was developed for identifying chemicals registered under the Euro...
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Published in | Environmental science--processes & impacts Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 34 - 353 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Royal Society of Chemistry
2018
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for risk assessment of all aspects of food safety, including the establishment of procedures aimed at the identification of emerging risks to food safety. Here, a scoring system was developed for identifying chemicals registered under the European REACH Regulation that could be of potential concern in the food chain using the following parameters: (i) environmental release based on maximum aggregated tonnages and environmental release categories; (ii) biodegradation in the environment; (iii) bioaccumulation and
in vivo
and
in vitro
toxicity. The screening approach was tested on 100 data-rich chemicals registered under the REACH Regulation at aggregated volumes of at least 1000 tonnes per annum. The results show that substance-specific data generated under the REACH Regulation can be used to identify potential emerging risks in the food chain. After application of the screening procedure, priority chemicals can be identified as potentially emerging risk chemicals through the integration of exposure, environmental fate and toxicity. The default approach is to generate a single total score for each substance using a predefined weighting scenario. However, it is also possible to use a pivot table approach to combine the individual scores in different ways that reflect user-defined priorities, which enables a very flexible, iterative definition of screening criteria. Possible applications of the approaches are discussed using illustrative examples. Either approach can then be followed by in-depth evaluation of priority substances to ensure the identification of substances that present a real emerging chemical risk in the food chain.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for risk assessment of all aspects of food and feed safety, including the establishment of procedures aimed at the identification of emerging risks to food safety. |
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ISSN: | 2050-7887 2050-7895 2050-7895 |
DOI: | 10.1039/c7em00564d |