EFSA outlines priorities to 2017
The agency said that key milestones for the year included adopting about 400 scientific outputs, renewing the membership of eight of its scientific panels and its scientific committee, and hosting its second scientific conference in Milan in October.
“Major scientific work includes opinions on acrylamide and caffeine, the revision of the EU plant pest annexes, and the launch of a multi-disciplinary project on the risk assessment of stressors in bees,” it said.
EFSA also intends to publish a report on chemicals in food as well as annual data monitoring reports on zoonoses, food-borne outbreaks, antimicrobial resistance, and pesticide residues.
This year’s work programme is part of a document outlining its priorities for 2015-2017, available online here.
“This document explains how we plan to ensure that our expertise, methods and data continue to serve the needs of the European Union and its 500 million citizens, and keep EFSA at the cutting edge of scientific risk assessment of food,” EFSA’s executive director Bernhard Url said in a statement.
“As well as ensuring the continued excellence of our core scientific activities, we want to further open up our work to wider scrutiny and engagement. We want to build enduring synergies in the European food safety system that make best use of finite resources and allow all members of the European risk assessment community to share expertise and information.”
