Publications

@article{https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.e200408,

title = {Risk Assessment of Food Contact Materials II},

author = {Edoardo Galbiati and Thomas Tietz and Sebastian Zellmer and Stefan Merkel},

url = {https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.e200408},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.e200408},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-01-01},

journal = {EFSA Journal},

volume = {20},

number = {S1},

pages = {e200408},

abstract = {Abstract Food contact materials (FCMs) are materials and articles intended to be placed in direct or indirect contact with foodstuffs, or which can reasonably be expected to come into contact with food under normal or foreseeable conditions of use. Substances intentionally used to manufacture FCMs, as well as non-intentionally added substances resulting from impurities, by-products and/or degradation products, can migrate from FMCs into food and, consequently, are taken up by humans. To protect consumers’ health, EU legislation requires that FCMs must be sufficiently inert to prevent substances from being transferred into the food in quantities that could endanger human health. At the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Unit 74 ‘Safety of Food Contact Materials’ deals with the risk assessment of FCMs and provides recommendations on the use of substances for the production of FCMs for which no specific European measures exist yet (e.g. silicone, rubber, paper and board). The BfR ‘Recommendations on Food Contact Materials’ are not legally binding; however, they represent the current state of the scientific and technical knowledge for the conditions under which these materials meet the requirements for consumer safety. As part of the EU-FORA programme, the fellow was involved in the risk assessment tasks and projects undertaken by Unit 74, which include: (i) the scientific evaluation of analytical and toxicological data from dossiers for adding new substances to the database ‘BfR Recommendations on Food Contact Materials’; (ii) the hazard assessment of cyclic volatile methylsiloxanes (cVMS) migrating from silicone FCMs into foodstuff; and (iii) in vitro metabolic stability study of cyclic methylsiloxanes in the presence of S9 fraction, performed in the BfR laboratories. Moreover, the EU-FORA fellowship was a great opportunity for the fellow to build a strong network of food safety experts and to be part of an international community of risk assessment professionals.},

keywords = {BfR recommendations, chemical risk assessment, FCM, food contact materials, migration, toxicology},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2020.e181109,

title = {Risk Assessment of Food Contact Materials},

author = {Elisa Beneventi and Thomas Tietz and Stefan Merkel},

url = {https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/j.efsa.2020.e181109},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2020.e181109},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

journal = {EFSA Journal},

volume = {18},

number = {S1},

pages = {e181109},

abstract = {Abstract Food contact materials (FCM) can contain chemicals that could migrate from the material itself to the foodstuff posing health concerns if ingested in non-safe quantities by the consumer. FCM include containers, packaging, machinery or kitchenware and can be made from different materials like plastics, paper and board, metal or glass. Printing inks are also an important part of FCM. FCM have an important role in preventing damage or spoilage of the foodstuff and are essential along the food chain. Therefore, their safety needs to be carefully assessed in order to reduce the exposure to potentially hazardous substances and protect the health of the consumer. At the EU level, the legislation on FCM establishes general safety requirements for FCM. In addition, for certain materials, specific measures concerning usage and release of substances have been set. For materials or articles not specifically regulated in this harmonised framework, safety must be proven on a case-by-case basis. National legislations and lists of substances evaluated by competent authorities are important data sources in this context. One of the most important databases are the ‘BfR Recommendations on Food Contact Materials’ and the soon to come German national regulation on printing inks. BfR Unit 74, besides dealing with chemical risk assessment of FCM, is responsible for the evaluation of application dossiers for including substances into the BfR recommendations on FCM or the substance list of the printing inks regulation. Through the proposed work programme the fellow has been involved in risk assessment of substances that migrate from FCM into foodstuff gaining experience in the methodologies used to perform the scientific data evaluation as well as to support the BfR Unit 74s work.},

keywords = {chemical risk assessment, food contact materials, in silico toxicology},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}