No matter what our food preferences are, one thing we have in common is that we all want our food to be safe. Talking about food safety, and the systems in place to achieve this, is important to reduce unfounded fears about food safety and help us to understand what we can do to contribute.

Across the EU, communication on food-related risks and appropriate responses is the task of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). On World Food Safety Day (7 June 2021), EFSA launched ‘EU Choose Safe Food’ to raise awareness about food safety. EuroFIR supports any such efforts to provide information about the science that brings safe food to our tables.

When talking about food safety, it is essential to differentiate this term from food security, which is challenging because many EU languages use the same word for security and safety. Food security refers to enough food, whilst food safety ensures that food we eat does not have adverse effect on our health or cause illness, and spans across the whole food chain, from production, processing, packaging, through transport and selling, and, finally, purchase, preparation, and storage. Thus, food safety really is everyone’s business!

The supply of safe food has always been a challenge, but globalisation has raised the bar even higher. In the early 1990s, we saw a series of food safety crises hit EU (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE, or “mad cow disease”],  salmonellosis, dioxin contamination). As it is in life, however, food crises are an opportunity for growth, and EU food safety system were improved, regaining consumer trust quickly following the establishment of an independent agency (European Food Safety Authority), which is responsible for assessing all potential food-related risks and providing independent scientific advice. EFSA was founded in 2002, and the same year Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 was published, establishing EFSA and adopting general principles and requirements of food law laying down procedures in matters of food safety,.

EU food safety systems are organised following clear functional and institutional separation of risk assessment and risk management. EFSA assesses food safety risks whilst others (i.e. European Commission, European Parliament, and EU Member States’ authorities) are responsible for risk management, on basis of EFSA’s scientific assessment and advice. This approach helps ensure impartiality and transparency of scientific advice as well as implementation of policy at national and EU levels.

Food safety systems include numerous scientists from different disciplines relevant to food safety: nutritionists,biologists, toxicologists, veterinarians, chemists, statisticians, etc. but also, lawyers, social and risk communication researchers, and enforcement officers working in the field. EuroFIR has contributed to food safety by harmonising food data composition, which forms the basis of many food-related risk assessments. Currently, EuroFIR is also proud to be part of a project updating EFSA’s RPC (Raw Primary Commodity) model, one of the tools used for assessing dietary exposure to chemicals, such as pesticides and feed additives, thereby helping to ensure the safety of food in the EU and, ultimately, protecting consumer health.