EFSA Focal Point Nieuwsbrief 2 juni 2022

Open call for tenders on roadmaps for action on animal welfare and communication science

Deadline: August 25^th, 2022

EFSA has published two open calls for tenders (OC/EFSA/ED/22/02 and OC/EFSA/ED/22/01) for the development of roadmaps for action.

The first open call is development of a Roadmap for Action for the Project ‘More Welfare: towards New Risk Assessment Methodologies and Harmonised Animal Welfare Data in the EU’.
The aim of this procurement is to obtain a roadmap for action in the area of animal welfare for:

1. the successful development and future implementation of a methodology for animal welfare quantitative risk assessment of food-producing animals and their production systems, and
2. the identification of strategic data collection activities to gather evidence on the main elements influencing the welfare state of food-producing animals during production (on-farm welfare).

The second open call is development of a Roadmap for Action on Evidence-based Risk Communication in the EU Food Safety System.
The aim of this procurement is to develop four roadmaps for action in the area of evidence-based risk communication in the EU food safety system by providing recommendations for research priorities to support the implementation of risk communication according to the principles defined in the Transparency Regulation. The main objective of these roadmaps for action is to consider the findings of EFSA's scientific report and to define a way forward to advance in areas where additional research is required in support of evidence-based risk communication in the realm of food safety.

The tender is divided into the following four lots:

• Lot 1: False information related to food safety
• Lot 2: Effectiveness of Transparency initiatives
• Lot 3: Insights into consumer trade-offs related to risks and benefits
• Lot 4: Linking factors behind perception and behaviour

The roadmaps for action shall provide a full understanding on e.g. ongoing activities, knowledge gaps, challenges and blockers as well as collaboration opportunities and potential partners. Each roadmap must provide for EFSA and its partners a basis for prioritisation and decision making for high-value and multi-annual studies or project calls (grants or procurements) to address the identified gaps.

BTSF-training "Risk Assessment of Microorganisms used as pesticides or biocides (RAMO)"

Session 9: September 27^th – 30^th, 2022, Riga
Session 10: November 22^th -25^th, 2022, Valencia

There are still places available for the sessions 9 and 10 of the  BTSF-training “Risk Assessment of Microorganisms used as pesticides or biocides (RAMO)”. Information on the contents can be found below.
Interested parties can contact the EFSA Focal Point at NVWAEFSAFocalPoint@nvwa.nl.
Deadlines for registration are 27^th of June for session 9 and 26^th of September for session 10.

General objective
The Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 provides rules for placing plant protection products in the market, based on a risk assessment, which encourages the development of less harmful substances. This Regulation includes chemical active substances and microorganisms, where, according to this Regulation, microorganisms are defined as “any microbiological entity, including lower fungi and viruses, cellular or non-cellular, capable of replication or of transferring genetic material”.

Microorganisms used as active substances in plant protection or biocidal products have a very different risk profile than chemicals. Many MPCAs have gained favour in recent years due, in part, to the perception that, because they are of natural origin, they are safer and/or more organic than the synthetic pesticides. However, there is no reason to believe that all forms of biocontrol are intrinsically safe. Studies are needed to identify the real risks of MPCAs and MPCPs to human health and to the environment as a basis for appropriate regulation of these beneficial organisms.

In the current EU registration procedure, microorganisms used as active substances and plant protection products containing microorganism are primarily treated as potentially risky organisms that are not only able to produce toxic substances, but are also potentially dangerous because they can multiply, spread and perhaps genetically adapt. It is important to be aware that placing a high inoculum of a microorganism in the environment can be treated as equivalent to a pesticide, as they fall under the same regulations as their chemical counterparts. The risk assessment for a microorganism active substance is different than that for chemicals (for instance their potential pathogenicity for humans and non-target organisms present in the environment, or their contribution to the possible development of resistance to antibiotics), and should be considered in full before allowing the use of the microorganism as an active substance on the EU market.

The objective of the training is to support development of expertise as regards the risk assessment methodologies for microorganisms to be used in biocidal and plant protection products. This shall also enhance competences in evaluating dossier admissibility/validity and risk assessment, and will also aim to promote, as much as possible, harmonisation of the procedures of evaluation, and authorisation of such microorganisms within the EU.


EFSA Webinar on GMO tools for the representativeness of the field trial sites

June 9^th, 2022
Online
Deadline for registration: June 3^rd

EFSA is organising a webinar on GMO tools for the representativeness of the field trial sites scheduled online on 9 June from 16:00 to 17:30 (CEST).
This is an opportunity to provide practical assistance for the selection of field trial sites used for the agronomic/phenotypic and compositional characterisation of GM plants. The webinar will also present the publicly available GMO tools developed by EFSA to facilitate the selection of field trial sites and the evaluation of their representativeness.

Representatives of business operators, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as laboratories and testing facilities are invited to attend.

For more information you can consult the dedicated page on the EFSA website.


109th Scientific Committee Open plenary meeting

July 5^th – 6^th, 2022
Online

Registration to observe the 109th Scientific Committee Open plenary meeting is now open.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, observers are welcome to join the event that will only take place online on 5-6 July 2022.
Please note that EFSA reserves the right to screen applications and prioritise requests to ensure geographical balance and broader participation.

You will receive a written response by email after the closing of registrations on 21 June at noon. If your participation is confirmed, you will receive the link to join the meeting. This link must not be shared with any other persons, including colleagues from the same company. Non registered and invited people will be rejected from the meeting.

Participation in this event is free of charge. The meeting agenda will be published on May 31^st.

EFSA Public consultation - draft protocol for hazard assessment

Deadline: July 5^th, 2022

EFSA's Food Ingredients and Packaging unit has launched a public consultation on the draft protocol for the hazard assessment as part of the risk assessment of phthalates, structurally similar substances and replacement substances potentially used as plasticisers in materials and articles intended to come into contact with food.

The protocol describes how hazard identification and hazard characterisation will be addressed. This document describes the strategy for retrieving, selecting, extracting the data, appraising the relevant evidence, summarizing, analysing and integrating scientific evidence in order to perform hazard assessments.

Interested parties can submit comments by 5 July 2022 (midnight CEST) through this link.