EU food safety agency to speed up advice

More timely advise on the risks associated with food scares should emerge as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) sets about streamlining the way it collates and disseminates information.

EFSA wanted to harmonise the way risk assessments were carried out across Europe, said EFSA's executive director Catherine Geslaine-Lanéelle, so that food safety authorities such as the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA), could develop more consistent risk management strategies.

"We will have a number of initiatives to share best practice and harmonise risk assessment," she told a recent international food conference in Munich.

"Co-operation with national agencies is a top priority," said Geslaine-Lanéelle. "Our opinions are there for the legislators to use, but crucially our opinions are not influenced by any political consideration."

By setting up information networks and sharing data collected by national agencies, duplication of effort should be substantially reduced, she said.

She added: "When food safety problems arise EFSA is aware of the damage that uncertainty can cause. EFSA has to play its part in providing risk managers with timely advice."

EFSA was looking at ways in which it could respond to incidents more rapidly, she added. "In the end we will have a common approach to risk assessment and we will have less divergent opinions."

But she warned that pressure from the European Commission on EFSA to reduce the time allowed to formulate risk assessment advice would inevitably influence its reliability.

"It will have an impact on the quality of the risk assessment advice provided."

Meanwhile, EFSA's scientific committee has been looking at emerging risks.

This month the FSA is hosting a joint international workshop in collaboration with EFSA on tackling future food threats.