Outcome of the public consultation on the draft guidance on the safety evaluation of nutrient sources and bioavailability of nutrient from the sources

Abstract

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) carried out a public consultation to receive input from the scientific community and all interested parties on the draft guidance on the safety evaluation of nutrient sources and bioavailability of nutrient from the sources prepared by the EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS) and endorsed by the Panel for public consultation at its Plenary meeting on 22 November 2017. The written public consultation for this document was open from 15 December 2017 to 25 February 2018. EFSA received a total of 44 comments from six interested parties. The start of the development of the guidance document was preceded by a public consultation on a concept paper aimed at gathering feedback from interested stakeholders to be further elaborated in the revised guidance. The concept paper was released on 8 June 2016 for 6 weeks for public consultation. In addition, the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) Panel was also consulted during the development of the guidance in the light of the fact that the NDA Panel will take over responsibility for the evaluation of nutrient sources added to food from the current ANS Panel following the renewal of EFSA's Scientific Panels in 2018. EFSA and its ANS Panel wish to thank all stakeholders for their contributions. The current report summarises the outcome of the public consultation, and includes the comments received and how the comments were addressed. The ANS Panel prepared an updated version of the guidance on the safety evaluation of nutrient sources and bioavailability of nutrient from the sources taking into account the questions/comments received. This guidance was discussed and adopted at the ANS Plenary meeting on 16 May 2018, and is published in the EFSA Journal