Joint appeal
The main European agricultural organisations and quality food product consortia, including Coldiretti and Filiera Italia, have addressed a letter to the Executive Director of EFSA, Bernhard Url, expressing strong concern regarding the update of the Guidelines on the scientific requirements for submitting an application for authorisation for a new food, published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). According to the signatories, the update does not meet the expectations expressed in note no. 5469/24, supported by 17 agriculture ministers from various European countries. The note emphasizes "a key principle of the European vision on food safety, considered crucial to best protect the interests of European citizens and consumers".
Tough challenges to face
In particular, it is highlighted that the guidelines do not take into account the European Parliament report on the European protein strategy, which highlights the ethical, social, environmental and economic challenges posed by "cell-based foods, produced by cultivating cells isolated from plants and animals" and underlines that "the regulation on novel foods is not adequate to address these challenges". The various acronyms also underline that "the specific request of ministers to align certain aspects of the evaluation of laboratory-produced foods with the procedures for evaluating medicinal products has been completely ignored". In particular, the request to include "preclinical and clinical studies as criteria for evaluating the safety of these products" has been overlooked.
Guidelines update
EFSA has also ignored the concerns expressed by the scientific community, in the context of the public consultation, regarding hormones, growth factors and antimicrobial residues. In light of these considerations, the organizations ask EFSA to "review its work to update the guidelines", taking into account the formal requests expressed in the note from the Council. The organizations announce a mobilization in case of non-compliance with the precautionary principle and ask "the blocking of all authorization procedures for products grown in laboratories until the requests formulated in the note from the ministers and the position expressed by the European Parliament are accepted". The requests made, the letter states, are based as mentioned on the "fundamental precautionary principle", considered "an essential pillar of the food policies pursued by the European Union", in order to protect both farmers and European consumers. The undersigned organizations trust that EFSA will examine the considerations set out and await with interest an official response on the matter (source: Coldiretti).
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