Safety Assessment of Additives and Ingredients for Infants and Young Children - Article

At the request of the European Commission (EC), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will re evaluate all food additives currently approved for infants and young children. EFSA has subsequently published guidance on the risk assessment of substances present in food intended for infants below 16 weeks of age, which details exposure assessment principles and a decision tree approach to risk assessment. A key consideration for the toxicological risk assessment is systemic availability, which for many additives and ingredients may result in expensive and lengthy reproductive and developmental toxicity studies being requested. Exposure assessment becomes more complex for young children (compared with infants) due to an increasingly varied diet, who can have particularly high intakes of specific foods. Experienced scientific judgement is crucial to ensure all aspects of this safety assessment are considered for new and existing food additives and ingredients.

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