Gap left by Podger unlikely to be filled this year

Dr Herman Koëter, the deputy executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), will become acting executive director from November 26 when Geoffrey Podger leaves to run the UK’s Health & Safety Executive.

Given the lengthy selection procedure, which involves a shortlist compiled by the European Commission (EC) and approval by the European Parliament, a new executive director is unlikely to be in place before next year.

Dr Stuart Slorach, chairman of EFSA’s management board, is already unhappy with appointment procedures. He said that a proposal requiring prior approval from the EC before an executive director is given a second term of office “would undermine the independence of the authority”. EFSA stressed that the proposals did not have any impact on the appointment of Podger’s successor, as some reports had inferred.

Meanwhile, after the discovery of illegal dyes in food earlier this year, EFSA’s review of toxicological data has concluded that, with the exception of Orange II, all are or may be genotoxic – capable of damaging human DNA – or carcinogenic. It has named similar dyes that may pose a threat, including Acid Red, Sudan Red 7B, Metanil Yellow, Auramine, Congo Red, Butter Yellow, Solvent Red I, Naphthol Yellow, Malachite Green, Leucomalachite Green, Ponceau 3R, Ponceau MX and Oil Orange SS.

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has said that Sudan 1 can be a produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of the permitted dye Sunset Yellow but that importers had agreed to change their processes.