07/05/2010

Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are widely used in industrial and consumer applications including stain-resistant coatings for fabrics and carpets, oil-resistant coatings for paper products approved for food contact, fire fighting foams, mining and oil well surfactants, floor polishes and insecticide formulations. An important subset is the perfluorinated organic surfactants, to which perfluoroctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) belong. Due to this wide use, perfluorooctane sulfonates and perfluorooctanoic acid, their salts and precursors have been detected in the environment, fish, birds and mammals.

EFSA’s Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain adopted a scientific opinion on PFOS, PFOA and their salts on 21 February 2008. In this scientific opinion, the Commission considered it unlikely that adverse effects of PFOS are occurring in the general population, but noted uncertainties with regard to developmental effects in living organisms. EFSA therefore recommended that further data on perfluoroalkylated substance levels in food and humans would be desirable, particularly with respect to monitoring trends in exposure to these substances.

Commission Recommendation 2010/161/EU of 17 March 2010, relating to the monitoring of perfluoroalkylated substances in foods, recommends that Member States monitor the presence of some of these substances in a wide variety of foods, of both animal and vegetable origin, during 2010 and 2011. It also recommends that Member States transmit the data obtained to EFSA on a regular basis in the reporting format set out by EFSA, including data from previous years.

The European Commission has therefore asked EFSA to launch a call for data on the presence of PFAS in food.

The collected data will be collated, analysed and summarised by EFSA into an intermediate report (January 2011) and a final report (May 2012).

Call for data

Member States, research institutions, academia and other stakeholders are invited to submit data on the presence of PFAS in food. Data obtained in previous years are also welcome.

The deadlines for transmitting data are as follows:

• Deadline for transmitting data to be included in the intermediate report: 30 June 2010.
• Deadline for transmitting data to be included in the final report: 31 January 2012.

For further information and to download the reporting format for the transmission of data and the address where it should be sent, consult the EFSA website.

However, you are politely asked to send a copy of the data to the following e-mail:

contaminantes@msps.es