Call for food additives usage level and/or concentration data in food and beverages intended for human consumption - Deadline for Batch 2: 30 November 2013

Background

Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008[i] of the European Parliament and the Council on food additives requires that food additives are subject to a safety evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) before they are permitted for use in the European Union. In addition, it is foreseen that food additives must be kept under continuous observation and must be re-evaluated by EFSA.

For this purpose, a programme for the re-evaluation of food additives that were already permitted in the European Union before 20 January 2009 has been set up under Commission Regulation (EU) No 257/2010 of 25 March 2010[ii]. This Regulation also foresees that food additives are re-evaluated whenever necessary in light of changing conditions of use and new scientific information. For efficiency and practical purposes, the re-evaluation should, as far as possible, be conducted by group of food additives according to the main functional class to which they belong. The order of specific priorities for the re-evaluation of the currently approved food additives is listed in Annex II of Commission Regulation (EU) No 257/2010. In addition, the Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS) discussed and agreed on a draft work programme for the re-evaluation of food additives for 2013 and 2014 during the 39th and 40th plenary meeting.

EFSA has also initiated an internal mandate for preparing refined exposure calculations for food colours already re-evaluated, for which a possible exceedance of the ADI was identified. The list of priorities for providing these refined exposure assessments is set as follows: curcumin (E 100)[iii], brown HT (E 155)[iv], azorubine/carmoisine (E 122)[v], allura red AC (E 129)[vi], brilliant black BN (E 151)[vii], quinoline yellow (E 104)[viii], sunset yellow (E 110)[ix] and ponceau 4R (E 124)[x].

Moreover, the European Commission, in accordance with article 29 (1) (a) of Regulation No 178/2002 has asked EFSA to carry out a refined exposure assessment for β-apo-8’-carotenal (E 160e)[xi] further to the evaluation carried out by EFSA’s ANS Panel in 2011.

The exposure assessments will be prepared taking into account the restrictions/exceptions listed in Regulation (EU) No 1129/2011[xii], especially in the case of main contributors.

Deadline for submission of data

The deadlines for the submission of data for the 2013 and 2014 draft work programme is September  and November 2013, details are listed in Table 1.

Further calls for data in relation to the food additives re-evaluation work programme for 2015 onwards will be published at a later stage.

Table 1. List of food additives for which usage levels and/or concentration data are requested in relation to the 2013 and 2014 draft work programme.

The  procedure for data submission is described below. Please note that submission of data through the “Data Collection Framework (DCF)” will be possible from 1st May 2013 onwards.

Data provided may be used in the EFSA opinions depending on their quality, and exclusion criteria will be indicated in the EFSA opinions. Only the data provider organisation will be cited in the EFSA opinions. Data provider organisations wishing to remain anonymous in the publications should indicate it in the email they will use to submit data to EFSA.

Contact details

Please address any technical inquiries regarding the reporting of data to: dcmdata@efsa.europa.eu.

Submission of usage level data

Food manufacturers eventually coordinated by the food manufacturers associations are invited to submit data on usage levels of additives in food and beverages for human consumption listed in Table 1.

Data submission on usage level of approved food additives in food and beverages intended for human consumption should follow the requirements provided in Table 1a of the Annex.

Where possible, the requirements provided use the same lists of Controlled terms as defined in the Guidance of Standard Sample Description[xiii], which are currently in place for the transmission to EFSA of analytical results.

In order to streamline the data collection exercise food manufacturers are invited to liaise with the relevant food manufacturer associations.

Food manufacturers and food manufacturer associations wishing to submit data directly to EFSA can do it using the provided MS Excel® files (Annexes Table 1b_1 – (“ADD_USAGE_structure.xls”) or Table 1b_2 - (“AddUseLevTemplate.xls”). Data providers should choose reporting data either using “ADD_USAGE_structure.xls” or “AddUseLevTemplate.xls”.

The “ADD_USAGE_structure.xls” is a MS Excel® file, it has to be filled manually with codes, numbers and free text.

The “AddUseLevTemplate.xls” is a MS Excel® file offering additional help for manual data entry. This MS Excel ® file embeds pick lists linked with “predefined lists” of standard terms included in the “StandardSampleDescription.xls” (Table 2b). The “AddUseLevTemplate.xls” require that Excel macros are enabled.

In case of data collected in a MS Excel® structure, as reported above, the files should be submitted by email to dcmdata@efsa.europa.eu. Where the number of records to be submitted is above 10,000 rows, food manufactures are invited to contact EFSA to evaluate the need of an electronic transmission to the DCF system.

Food manufacturer associations will be provided of access to EFSA Web interface for data collection “Data Collection Framework (DCF)” (https://dcf.efsa.europa.eu/dcf-war) and will be able to submit additive usage level data electronically in XML format. In order to receive access to the DCF web interface and further guidance on the electronic data transmission, please contact dcmdata@efsa.europa.eu. The data collection group to be selected when submitting usage level data on the DCF is the group “ADD_USAGE”.

The following links list the documentation needed to support the data collection on food additives usage levels:

Table 1a: Call for food additives usage level data in food and beverages intended for human consumption - Mandatory, recommended or optional information to be reported.

Table 1b_1: MS Excel® file “ADD_USAGE_structure.xls” (Free structure file).

Table 1b_2: MS Excel® file “AddUseLevTemplate.xls” (File with predefined lists of elements linked and macros).

Table 2c: MS Excel® Standard Sample Description.xls  

Table 3: MS Excel file “Food classification related to food additives including exceptions and restrictions” (Amended for reporting substance of Batch 1 and Batch 2)[xiv].

Submission of concentration data (analytical results)

Food manufacturers, national food authorities, research institutions, academia, food business operators, and other stakeholders are invited to submit analytical data on concentration levels in food and beverages intended for human consumption listed in Table 1.

It should be noted that the present call is not aiming at collecting compliance sample information but the actual concentration level of additives in the analysed food.

Data submission of concentration data (analytical results) should follow the requirements identical to those described in the call for continuous collection of chemical contaminants occurrence data in food and feed and reported in Table 2a of the Annex.

Data should be transmitted using the EFSA web interface “Data Collection Framework (DCF)” (https://dcf.efsa.europa.eu/dcf-war). The data collection group to be selected when submitting data on these substances through Data Collection Framework is the group “OCC_GROUP5”. In order to receive access to the DCF web interface please contact: dcmdata@efsa.europa.eu.

In case data are compiled using the Table 2b, MS Excel® file “Simplified reporting format”, they cannot be transmitted using the DCF web interface. In this case data should be sent to the e-mail address: dcmdata@efsa.europa.eu.

For the collection of this type of data the general recommendations and mandatory fields apply as specified in the Guidance on Standard Saple Description.

The following links summarise the mandatory fields and recommended fields applicable for the data collections defined in this call and the food classification related to additives, exceptions and restrictions.

Table 2a: Call for concentration data of food additives in food and beverages intended for human consumption - Mandatory or recommended information to be reported.

Table 2b: MS Excel® file “Simplified reporting format”.

Table 3: MS Excel® file “Food classification related to food additives including exceptions and restrictions ” (Amended for reporting substance of Batch 1 and Batch 2)[xiv].

Annexes

The following links list the documentation needed to support the data collection on additives.

• Table 1a: Call for food additives usage level data in food and beverages intended for human consumption - Mandatory, recommended or optional information to be reported.
  • Table 1a
• Table 1b_1: MS Excel® file “ADD_USAGE_structure.xls” (Free structure file)
  • Table 1b_1
• Table 1b_2: MS Excel® file “AddUseLevTemplate.xls” (File with predefined lists of elements and macros)
  • Table 1b_2
• Table 2a: Call for concentration data of food additives in food and beverages intended for human consumption - Mandatory or recommended information to be reported.
  • Table 2a
• Table 2b: MS Excel file “Simplified reporting format”
• Table 2c: MS Excel® Standard Sample Description.xls  
• Table 3: MS Excel® file “Food classification related to food additives including exceptions and restrictions” (Amended for reporting substance of Batch 1 and Batch 2)[xiv].
  • Table 3

Updated: 31 July 2013