Risk Assessment

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Drawing from EFSA risk assessments, OpenFoodTox provides structured summaries of hazard information for thousands of individual substances, including food additives and flavorings, pesticides, contaminants, and food contact materials.

The findings, based on a novel approach and published in Nature Health, suggest that traditional chemical safety assessments may overlook combined exposures and real-life environmental conditions. Transcriptomic analysis implicated a non-genotoxic mode of action by which pesticides interfere with normal cell function and identity processes.

None of the exposures to the five additives and flavorings assessed presented a health concern for the EU population. The pilot helped identify shortcomings in the monitoring framework that will be rectified for future reports.

This episode of Food Safety Five discusses new academic publications exploring the limitations of a “zero-risk” approach to food safety and evaluating the limited benefits and trade-offs associated with intensified microbiological sampling.

This article discusses how the overlooked sub-group of middle management plays a large part in determining culture, execution, and risk performance.

Following the EU ban on BPA in food contact materials (FCMs), which specified FCM manufacturing applications where other “hazardous” bisphenols may be used, EFSA issued a draft statement on related safety data requirements.

A JEMRA meeting was convened to help inform discussions about potential updates to Codex Alimentarius guidance, reflecting how scientific advances could strengthen microbiological risk assessments for food safety.

The Environmental Working Group’s 2026 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce highlights PFAS pesticides for the first time. Although EWG recently updated its methodology, scientists argue it still does not consider key exposure science and risk assessment principles, therefore misleading consumers about the health risks of conventionally grown produce.

Researchers developed a quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA) framework that evaluates the public health, environmental, and economic trade-offs of microbiological sampling plans. They suggested microbiological sampling may be most useful when risk-based or as a verification tool.

Controls based on overly sensitive detection methods and focused on single outcomes may introduce unintended environmental and economic consequences. The researchers advocate for the holistic evaluation of food safety and sustainability risks within a “One Health” framework.