EFSA’s Scientific Colloquium 25 “A coordinated approach to assess the human health risks of micro- and nanoplastics in food,” 6-7 May 2021
Thank you to all the speakers, e-poster presenters and participants of our #Microplastics21 scientific colloquium on the emerging area of risk assessment: microplastics and nano plastics in food. All the presentations, documents and videos of the plenary sessions are available below.
Background
Microplastics are small particles of plastic less than 5mm in size; nanoplastics are even smaller, ranging from 1 to 100 nanometres (N.B. 1 nanometre equals one-millionth of a millimetre).
In 2016, EFSA identified the need to generate more data on their occurrence levels in food and on their potential effects on human health following exposure. Recently, international reports on microplastics and nanoplastics have been published, yet many of the food safety aspects remain unaddressed.
Public concern about this topic is high. EFSA’s 2019 Eurobarometer on Food Safety in the EU found that microplastics in food was a topic of increasing concern among EU citizens.
Therefore, EFSA held an online scientific colloquium on 6 and 7 May 2021, with the following objectives:
- Bringing stakeholders together,
- Understanding the current state of play and ongoing research on this topic
- Building possible synergies.