Food News

The EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) has published an updated scientific opinion on ‘dioxins’ (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs)) in food and feed.

This follows a reassessment of the toxicity equivalence factors (TEFs) by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The EFSA based its assessment on data from the last decade. The final dataset included more than 54,000 food samples. The majority of these were foods of animal origin, such as meat, fish, milk and dairy products, as well as eggs. The organisation found that the use of the new WHO2022 TEFs resulted in estimates of total TEQ exposure via the diet that were approximately 27–35% lower than previous estimates based on the earlier WHO2005 TEFs.In terms of dietary intake, milk and dairy products, as well as fish and fish products, were the main contributing food groups. Vegetables and meat products also contributed to intake levels in several dietary surveys, whilst oils and fats are considered less relevant for the dietary intake of these environmental toxins. The extent to which dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs enter food of animal origin via animal feed was also investigated. Recent studies on dairy cows, laying hens and pigs were available for this purpose. The EFSA found that the WHO’s revision of the TEFs does not affect the transfer rates of individual congeners previously used as a basis, but does have an impact on the transfer rate when this is expressed as a sum (total TEQ).

YOUR PLUS: The AGROLAB GROUP is a European leader in dioxin and dl-PCB analysis – not only because we have high measurement capacities at several sites, which make us ‘crisis-proof’, but also because we have consistently insisted on the strict separation of sample streams from the environmental sector and the food and feed sectors.

Author: Dr Frank Mörsberger, AGROLAB GROUP