Identification of emerging risks associated with food supplements, other than vitamins and minerals

The PT -ASAE authority has consistently gathered and provided data on the safety of plant-based food supplements marketed in Europe and cooperated through Briefing Notes to its discussion as an issue of concern since the creation of EFSA (see Botanicals | EFSA (europa.eu)), and during the Emerging Risks Exchange Network (EREN) meeting in April 2021. Thus, it is greatly welcome the opportunity EFSA launched to a project for an outsourced activity that was developed by the SCER/KNOW Secretariat included under NEXT Programme, further endorsed at the Advisory Forum (AF) in March 2023.

After the kick-off meeting on 29th January, the PT -ASAE Group is actively focused on contributing to the establishment of a topic community of knowledge on food supplements, in strategic partnership, engaging with expertise for signals in nutrivigilance systems and for analyzing plant-based substances of concern.

It is also clear that the community’s role is to identify possible emerging risks without mandate to conduct risk assessment as per Regulation (EC) 178/2002 or Reg. (EC) 1925/2006.

Task 1 - Work Package 1: Establishment and moderation of Community of Knowledge on food supplements other than vitamins and minerals

Task 2 - Work Package 3: Identifying potentially hazardous food supplements, other than vitamins and minerals, containing plant-based substances with predicted toxicity in the EFSA Compendium on Botanicals