Consultation on the Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) approach for the safety assessment of microorganisms deliberately added to food and feed

EFSA has launched a public consultation in order to seek public comments on the use of Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) as a safety assessment tool for microorganisms added to food and feed. This approach is designed to maintain the same high standards as a case-by case approach whilst reducing unnecessary testing, in particular tests using animals, by taking into account the existing body of knowledge and history of apparent safe use.

Before looking at a possible application of the QPS approach across its Scientific Panels, EFSA is seeking broad comments on this approach as well as more specific comments on the documents listed below..The QPS approach has been tested on four broad groups of microorganisms; the scientific justifications for including in or excluding a taxonomic group from the QPS list are given in Annexes 3 to 6. EFSA would be particularly interested in knowing:

• Whether the weight-of-evidence presented is considered sufficient to ensure that QPS status provides at least the same degree of confidence as a case-by-case safety assessment,
• Whether the weight-of-evidence has been sufficiently documented,
• Whether there are issues that have not been sufficiently considered.