EFSA rejects ‘secret studies’ allegations
Ahead of EFSA’s conference on transparency being held in Parma today, the non-profit campaigning group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), published an open letter claiming that EFSA lacks transparency in its decision making on food product safety, largely because of industry claims that data is commercially sensitive.
“Having industry perform and report the tests on which authorizations are based casts doubt on the validity of the entire authorization process,” said Nina Holland, a researcher and campaigner at CEO, one of the letter’s signatories.
“The fact that the details of the tests are kept secret only adds to the lack of public confidence in EFSA's assessments. The minimum solution to this situation is full and pro-active transparency of these dossiers from the moment they are submitted to EFSA, pending a more adequate risk assessment system.”
This is not the first time that EFSA’s transparency in risk assessment has been questioned, and the agency launched an initiative in January specifically to address this issue, including allowing public access to scientific data and opening its scientific meetings to the public. This followed a report from independent auditors last year that said its communication was “adequate for a well-informed target audience”.
Full access to documents
Responding to the open letter, EFSA spokesperson Stephen Pagani told FoodNavigator: “There are no secret studies. Under EU law, interested parties with a legitimate request can have full access to the documents of the European institutions – Public Access to Documentation. EFSA always responds to such requests.
“…Normally, access is allowed to such documentation except where information is claimed to be confidential by the applicant. If the applicant claims confidentiality to parts of an application, it is up to the European Commission or a Member State to decide whether the claim for confidentiality is justified or not.”
Today’s conference aims to facilitate public access to data used in risk assessments, and to discuss how to make data available to the broader scientific community and interested parties, as well as when and how this could be done.
Pagani added that it was a fundamental EU principle that companies set to profit from regulated products – such as GMOs, active substances used in pesticides and food additives – must provide evidence that they are safe.
“Where new research on a specific substance is required to demonstrate its safety, manufacturers must bear the cost of producing the required data for the risk assessment,” he said. “…Though regardless of the source, EFSA critically and rigorously evaluates all the data submitted as well as the design of the studies that produced them to ensure that they meet the standards required to ensure consumer protection.”
