EFSA/WHO International Conference on "Risk Assessment of Compounds that are both Genotoxic and Carcinogenic: New Approaches" with the support of ILSI Europe

In recent years, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), WHO/IPCS (World Health Organization - International Programme on Chemical Safety), and ILSI Europe have independently tasked groups of scientific experts to improve the risk assessment of chemicals in food, including for genotoxic and carcinogenic compounds in foods. These groups had slightly different goals, but the outputs are complementary, and together can form a coherent picture of the process for risk assessment. The common goal of all groups was to provide better advice to the risk manager, which might include prioritisation of compounds for regulatory actions.

To facilitate discussion of the conclusions and reach consensus on best practice, EFSA and WHO will, with support of the ILSI Europe Risk Assessment of Genotoxic Carcinogens in Food Task Force, organise an international conference in November 2005. Based on the working papers developed by the organisers and considering any additional perspective seen as relevant, the conference included:

• Discussion on the possibilities of risk assessment advice for genotoxic and carcinogenic compounds with focus on low intakes as expected from foods
• Discussion on the relevance of cellular defence and repair mechanisms to genotoxic actions (e.g.: repair, cell-cycling, and immune surveillance)
• Discussion on the interpretation of the outcome of the approaches in terms of risk to human health 
• Discussion on how far new risk assessment tools meet the needs of risk managers and can provide the possibility for practical options in situations where elimination of such risks is not to be expected

These discussions will help to identify gaps and may lead to proposals for improvements.

The outcome of this joint conference will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

For more information click here.