The main objectives of EFSA’s activities on emerging risks are:
- to carry out activities to identify emerging risks
- to develop and improve emerging risk identification (ERI) methodologies and approaches
- to communicate on identified issues and risks.
The outcome of these activities also allows EFSA to prepare for future risk assessment challenges.
During the meeting, the topics discussed were arranged into three main sections:
- Discussion of new signals for emerging risks: the issues and follow-up actions regarding brevetoxins in French shellfish, hypoglycin A in cow milk, human infections due to enteropathogenic Arcobacter and the risks associated with home-made fermented foods were discussed, latter one was presented by dr. Ákos Józwiak. Survey results on the ‘Short issues’ (issues presented by member states that are to be evaluated in order to find out their relevance as emerging risks) from spring 2021 meeting were also presented.
- Further information on previous EFSA and member state signals have been presented and discussed.
- EFSA and member state activities regarding emerging risk identification have also been presented, including renewal of terms of reference of EREN, EFSA’s reorganization and updates on EFSA projects on emerging risk identification.
The meeting is always a useful platform for information exchange. Our institute usually provides numerous topics and issues to be discussed as potential emerging risks identified by our data analytical methods and ERI system, and on the other hand, the meeting is also a great supporting information source for our own activities.