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January 26, 2016

EFSA Publishes Nano Network 2015 Annual Report

Lynn L. Bergeson Carla N. Hutton

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published on January 11, 2016, the Scientific Network for Risk Assessment of Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed (Nano Network) annual report for 2015.  The report states that, during 2015, the Nano Network followed-up on its four priority topics:  (1) the need for an inventory of nanomaterials in products on the market; (2) the analysis and monitoring of products under development and on the market; (3) the need for suitable measuring methods, e.g., for physico-chemical properties; and (4) the need for validated test methods in vitro and in vivo.  Topics recommended for the 2016 program include:

  • Discussing implementation of the novel food regulation;
  • Making more materials available for research through cooperation from industries and/or through reference material development while expanding the Joint Research Center’s (JRC) repository;
  • Discussing the idea of pooling ongoing safety research to extract the data in a harmonized way; and
  • Receiving an update on the implementation of the risk assessment approach as applied by the Netherlands, and debating its wider application.