EU Parliament’s ENVI committee must vote to end secrecy around food safety assessments

EU Parliament’s ENVI committee must vote to end secrecy around food safety assessments On 27 November, the European Parliament’s committee on the Environment and Food Safety (ENVI) has a unique chance to make risk assessment in the food chain more transparent. 

In April, the Commission published plans to update the General Food Law to require EFSA to publish the non-confidential parts of industry-funded studies that support safety evaluations of products such as pesticides, food additives or novel foods for instance. The move came as a response to the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Ban Glyphosate’, which saw over a million Europeans call on the EU to increase the transparency of EFSA scientific assessments. 

Under EU law, industry must prove its products are safe before it can put them on the market. But today, the studies industry pays for and submits to EFSA as part of a product authorisation request remain secret. Ahead of the vote, BEUC Director General Monique Goyens commented: "We urge members of the ENVI committee to stand by consumers and vote to ensure that all safety tests on food additives, pesticides, flavourings or GMOs are published as soon as they have been submitted to EFSA. “Public controversies around glyphosate, aspartame or bisphenol A have shaken consumer confidence in the way the EU regulates food safety. 

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