This week, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced a new online warehouse in which data on chemical contaminants and food consumption is available to the public.

According to EFSA’s head of evidence management, “This is the latest important step towards improving accessibility to data collected by EFSA – one of the Authority’s main strategic challenges,”

The warehouse targets three main groups: “technical” (scientists, risk managers and producers), “informed” (food safety decision makers, stakeholders, science media), and “entry-level” (other media, general public). Content on the site is layered in order to make information searchable for each type of audience.

What is now available to the general public includes statistics--by country--on how often contaminants are found in food, as well as food consumption for a variety of age groups. EFSA’s database also offers more technical content than before, as well as easier access to guidance documents, corporate reports, news, fact sheets and more. All data is searchable via interactive graphs, maps and tables.

This database is just the beginning for EFSA. The agency expects to make more of their information available in the coming years with input collected from EU member states and other resources. Future data will include collections of information on zoonotic microorganisms in food, feed and animals, antimicrobial resistance, pesticide residues in food, and chemical hazards in food and feed.

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