Outcome of the public consultation and other activities to update the scientific guidance for the submission of dossiers on food enzymes

Abstract

The European Commission mandated the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to update the scientific guidance for the submission of dossiers on food enzymes in May 2020. EFSA created a Working Group to prepare the draft document, which was critically reviewed by representatives from six Member States. The draft guidance was then endorsed by the EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP Panel) for a public consultation via the EFSA webpage. The public consultation was open for eight weeks from March 8th until May 9th 2021. At the onset of the public consultation, two webinars were organised to enhance the clarity of two topics, namely, requirement for toxicological studies and food enzyme intake model. The draft guidance received written comments from six interested parties and an individual citizen. After the public consultation EFSA organized a stakeholder workshop to publicly address the written comments and to clarify technical and procedural aspects of dossiers submission. At the end, the updated scientific guidance for food enzymes was adopted by the CEP Panel on 15 September 2021 and published in the EFSA Journal. This technical report contains the written comments received during the public consultation and explains the way they have been considered. It reports also all the engagement activities carried out by EFSA to receive input from interested parties during the development of the guidance.