Annual call for continuous collection of chemical contaminants occurrence data in food and feed
Deadline for submission: 30/06/2025
Deadline for submission of data: 31/08/2025
Background
In the framework of Articles 23 and 33 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 EFSA has received from the European Commission a mandate (M-2010-0374) to collect all available data on the occurrence of chemical contaminants in food and feed. These data are used in EFSA’s scientific opinions and reports on contaminants in food and feed.
Submission of information/data
National food authorities, research institutions, academia, food business operators and other stakeholders are invited to submit data on occurrence of contaminants with a focus on the substances and related substances listed below. This list is not exhaustive: the full list of contaminants that can be reported and their corresponding codes are published with this call in the file ‘PARAM_chemAnalysis hierarchy.xlsx’. The preparation of this excel was based on version 16.2 PARAM of Catalogue browser.
Priority list of chemical contaminants to support scientific opinions in progress
| Contaminants | Deadline for data submission* |
| Beauvericin and enniatins (Food and Feed) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Capsaicinoids: Beauvericin and enniatins (Food and Feed) Capsaicin, Dihydrocapsaicin, Nordihydrocapsaicin, Homocapsaicin, Homodihydrocapsaicin, Capsaicinoids total (Food) | 30-Jun-2025 |
Contaminants in smoked food and spices i.e. meat & meat products, fish & fishery products, cheese & dairy products, spices and salt, produced only through conventional smoking[1], including:
| 30-Jun-2025 |
| Emerging and Novel brominated flame retardants (BFRs [2]) (Food) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Glycoalkaloids (Food and Feed) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Hexane (used as a ‘processing aid’ to extract food or food ingredient) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Lectins (attention on quantity vs. activity) (Food) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Matrine & Oxymatrin (all foods with a particular interest for products where presence of these substances may not be avoided e.g. liquorice, liquorice-based products, honey, tea and herbal infusions) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Melamine (Food and Feed) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Phomopsins (Food and Feed) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Semicarbazide (Food) | 30-Jun-2025 |
| Thebaine and Oripavine (Poppy seeds and derived products) | 30-Jun-2025 |
* Corresponds to the date where EFSA’s exposure assessors will extract the data to start the risk assessment. Data received after the indicated dates is unlikely to be considered in the ongoing scientific opinions but will be retained in the database for possible future scientific assessments.
[1] List of 16 EU-prioritised PAHs:
- Benzo-a-anthracene (CAS No 56-55-3)
- Benzo-a-pyrene (CAS No 50-32-8)
- Benzo-b-fluoranthene (CAS No 205-99-2)
- Benzo-g,h,i-perylene (CAS No 191-24-2)
- Benzo-j-fluoranthene (CAS No 205-82-3)
- Benzo-k-fluoranthene (CAS No 207-08-9)
- Chrysene (CAS No 218-01-9)
- Cyclopenta-c,d-pyrene (CAS No 27208-37-3)
- Dibenzo-a,e-pyrene (CAS No 192-65-4)
- Dibenzo-a,h-anthracene (CAS No 53-70-3)
- Dibenzo-a,h-pyrene (CAS No 189-64-0)
- Dibenzo-a,i-pyrene (CAS No 189-55-9)
- Dibenzo-a,l-pyrene (CAS No 191-30-0)
- Indenol-1,2,3,c,d-pyrene (CAS No 193-39-5)
- 5-Methylchrysene (CAS No 3697-24-3)
- Benzo-c-fluorene (CAS No 205-12-9)
[2] List of 27 ‘Emerging and Novel BFRs’ EFSA is interested in:
- Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate (TDBPP, CAS No 126-72-7)
- N,N′-ethylenebis(tetrabromophthalimide) (EBTEBPI, CAS No 32588-76-4)
- Hexabromocyclodecane (HBCYD, CAS No 25495-98-1)
- Bis(2-ethylhexyl) tetrabromophthalate (BEH-TEBP, CAS No 26040-51-7)
- 2-ethylhexyl 2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (EH-TBB, CAS No 183658-27-7)
- Dibromoneopentyl glycol (DBNPG, CAS No 3296-90-0)
- Bis (2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (TBE, CAS No 37853-59-1)
- Decabromodiphenylethane (DeBDethane, CAS No 84852-53-9)
- 1,2-Dibromo-4-(1,2-dibromoethyl)cyclohexane (TBECH, DBE-DBCH CAS No 3322-93-8)
- 5,6-dibromo-1,10,11,12,13,13-hexachlorotricyclo[8.2.1.02,9]tridec-11-ene (DBHCTD, CAS No 51936-55-1)
- Hexabromobenzene (HBB, CAS No 87-82-1)
- 1,2,3,4,7,7-Hexachloro-5-(tetrabromophenyl)bicyclo(2.2.1)hept-2-ene (HCTBPH, CAS No 34571-16-9)
- 4,5,6,7-tetrabromo-1,1,3-trimethyl-3-(2,3,4,5-tetrabromophenyl)-indane (OBIND, CAS No 1084889-51-9)
- (Pentabromophenyl)methyl acrylate (PBB-Acr, CAS No 59447-55-1)
- Pentabromoethylbenzene (PBEB, CAS No 85-22-3)
- Pentabromotoluene (PBT, CAS No 87-83-2)
- Tribomoneopentyl alcohol (TBNPA, CAS No 1522-92-5)
- Tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)isocyanurate (T23BPIC, CAS No 52434-90-9)
- 1,2,5,6-tetrabromocyclooctane (TBCO, CAS No 3194-57-8)
- 2,3,5,6-tetrabromo-p-xylene (TBX, CAS No 23488-38-2)
- 1,3-Bis(2,3-dibromopropyl)-5-allyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione (BDBP-TAZTO, CAS No 75795-16-3)
- 1-(2,3-dibromopropyl)-3,5-bis(prop-2-enyl)-1,3,5-triazinane-2,4,6-trione (DBP-TAZTO, CAS No 57829-89-7)
- Dibromostyrene (DBS, CAS No 31780-26-4)
- 2-(2-hydroxyethoxy)ethyl 2-hydroxypropyl 3,4,5,6-tetrabromophthalate (HEEHP-TEBP, CAS No 20566-35-2)
- Tetradecabromo-1,4-diphenoxybenzene (4'-PeBPO-BDE208, CAS No 58965-66-5)
- Tris(tribromoneopentyl) phosphate (TTBNPP, CAS No 19186-97-1)
- 2,4,6-tris(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TTBP-TAZ, CAS No 25713-60-4)
Non-exhaustive list of chemical contaminants
Process Contaminants
- Furan, 2-methylfuran, 3-methylfuran, 2,5-dimethylfuran, 2-ethylfuran and 2-pentyfuran
- Acrylamide
- PAHs
- 3-MCPD, 3-MCPD esters, 2-MCPD esters and glycidyl esters
- Ethyl Carbamate
Organic contaminants
- Chlorinated Paraffins
- Dioxins and PCBs
- Non dioxin-like PCBs
- Brominated Flame Retardants
- PFAS
- Polychlorinated naphthalenes
- Melamine and analogues
- Benzene
- Perchlorate
- N-nitrosamines
Inorganic
- Bromine and bromide ion
- Cadmium
- Lead
- Arsenic (inorganic and total)
- Mercury (methyl mercury and total mercury)
- Fluoride
- Fluorine in feed
- Nitrates and Nitrites
- Inorganic tin
- Aluminium
- Nickel
Mycotoxins
- Aflatoxins (B1 in feed, B1, B2, G1 and G2 and Total in food, M1 in dairy)
- Ochratoxin A
- Deoxynivalenol (and acetylated derivatives and DON-3-glucoside)
- Zearalenone and modified forms
- Fumonisins and modified forms
- Alternaria toxins (alternariol, alternariol monomethyl ether, tenuazonic acid, tentoxin)
- Patulin
- T-2 and HT-2 and modified forms
- Nivalenol and modified forms
- Ergot sclerotia
- Ergot alkaloids
- Enniatins
- Sterigmatocystin
- Beauvericin
- Citrinin
- Moniliformin
- Diacetoxyscirpenol
- Phomopsins
Plant toxins
- Opium alkaloids
- Quinolizidine alkaloids
- Pyrrolizidine alkaloids
- Glucosinolates
- Glyco-alkaloids
- Grayanotoxins (GTX)
- Tropane alkaloids
- Hydrocyanic acid
- Erucic acid
- Tetrahydrocannabinol
- Specific for feed
- Free Gossypol
- Theobromine
- Ricin
- Abrin
- Crotin I
Organochlorine compounds specific for feed
- Aldrin
- Dieldrin
- Camphechlor
- Chlordane
- DDT
- Endosulfan
- Endrin
- Heptachlor
- Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)
- Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH-alpha, beta and gamma isomers)
How to submit data
Data must be submitted in electronic format (XML) to the EFSA Data Collection Framework (DCF) https://dcf.efsa.europa.eu/dcf-war/dc. User credentials are required to access the DCF web interface. For new accounts, to obtain the credentials please contact data.collection [at] efsa.europa.eu (data[dot]collection[at]efsa[dot]europa[dot]eu).
EFSA will only accept data in SSD2 (Standard Sample Description version 2) format. In case data are compiled manually using the EFSA tools available at Zenodo, i.e simplified tool, the XML file must be generated for direct submission to the DCF. Kindly be informed that the tools for reporting chemicals are updated annually and will be published close to the opening of data collection.
A short video describing how to send data to EFSA is available here.
The guidance ‘Chemical monitoring reporting Guidance: 2025 data collection’ should be consulted for an overview of reporting requirements and reporting elements and is available at the link below:
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2024.EN-8596
The annual major release of the catalogues (31/01/2025) and SSD2 structural metadata can be downloaded from the link below:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.779880
Guidance on the installation and use of the EFSA Catalogue browser can be found at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/supporting/pub/en-1726.
The DCF will open for the reporting of chemical contaminants occurrence data under the chemical monitoring data collection on 1 April 2025. The deadline for the complete transmission of all data through DCF is 30 June 2025. The last two months, period of 1 July – 31 August is set for the data validation and data acceptance in EFSA Scientific Data Warehouse (sDWH).
The communication below is not applicable to Member State competent authorities.
Please note that all confidentiality requests related to datasets submitted within the frame of this call for data must be submitted exclusively via Portalino. Submission of data in any other form (email, third party e-submission platforms, etc.) will not be accepted.
Guidance about the confidentiality assessment process and information on how to submit confidentiality requests are available here and here. In addition, instructions on how to use Portalino are available here. Whenever a confidentiality request is submitted, a non-confidential version (in which the data claimed confidential has been redacted/blackened) and a confidential version (in which the data claimed confidential has been earmarked but remains visible) must be submitted.
Data providers should clearly indicate the data collection in which the dataset of concern was transmitted (e.g. Chemical Monitoring data collection 2025; Data Collection Framework (DCF) folder: CHEM_MON_SSD2_W2.2025) and dataset-ID as found in DCF.
Please note that confidentiality requests must be submitted via Portalino if information should be kept confidential since EFSA is required to proactively publish all data on which it bases its Scientific Output pursuant to Article 38(1)(d) of the GFL and Article 6(1) of EFSA’s Practical Arrangements concerning transparency and confidentiality after the adoption of the relevant scientific output/opinions.
Contact details
Please address any technical enquiries regarding the reporting of data to data.collection [at] efsa.europa.eu (data[dot]collection[at]efsa[dot]europa[dot]eu)