AECOSAN in the TAIEX on Emerging Risks
Date: 09 marzo 2017
Section: Seguridad Alimentaria
On 7 and 8 March in Zaragoza, in the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute (IMAZ-CIHEAM), which coordinates the SAMEFOOD network (Mediterranean Food Safety Network), the international TAIEX workshop on emerging risks related to food safety was held. This workshop was jointly organised by AECOSAN, IMAZ-CIHEAM, EFSA and the European Commission through its TAIEX initiative.
The objective of this workshop was to create a space for the exchange of experience between experts from the Mediterranean countries to boost cooperation in early identification, risk assessment and the management of food risks considered to be emerging and of particular concern in this region.
Over 50 professionals from the following countries participated in this workshop: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Serbia, Macedonia, Tunisia, and Turkey. On the EU’s behalf, the European Commission, EFSA, the University of Zaragoza, the University of Barcelona, the University of Vigo and Lleida, amongst others, also participated. AECOSAN was represented by César Casado, Head of the Chemical Risk Area of AECOSAN’s General Underdirectorate of Food Safety Promotion.
Emerging risks have been defined by EFSA’s scientific committee as those risks not known to date that, furthermore, have significant exposure in the population; or dangers that are already known but considering new scientific knowledge they are more exposed in society or there is greater susceptibility of it to this danger. Examples of emerging risks identified to date are certain mixtures of chemical products, or contagious nodular dermatitis, amongst others. The identification of these risks in very early phases is a key factor for Public Health and the protection of the environment, and it requires very innovative approaches of a comprehensive nature to analyse the information available.
In the sphere of the Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition, the project cofounded by EFSA is highlighted, in which 6 Member States participate and which is coordinated by the Agency, focussed on the characterisation of the risk of food poisoning by ciguatera in Europe, as well as the National Emerging Risk Network created in 2014 as a support for the EFSA network.
For two days, key issues were addressed that were related to the emerging risks and the methodology for identifying these risks. They also re-examined the current situation in the region, they dealt monographically with a series of emerging risks that constitute a concern and, lastly, the current mechanisms in the EU and other countries of the region for the management of the crises that have occurred due to the emergence of these risks, as well as the most effective way of communicating these risks to the population were addressed.
This type of international initiative forms part of AECOSAN’s competencies and is integrated into a global strategy of international cooperation of the European institutions, EFSA, “going global together”, which the Commission funds as part of the European Neighbourhood Programme’s philosophy.
Find out more at:
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/emerging-risks
https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/tenders/taiex_en
