Call for continuous collection of chemical contaminants occurrence data in food and feed
Background
In the framework of Art.23 and 33 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 EFSA has received from the European Commission mandate to collect on a continuous basis all available data on occurrence of chemical contaminants in food and feed (Mandates M-2008-0143, M-2009-0130, M-2009-0131, M-2009-0277, M-2009-0318, M-2010-0132, M-2010-0374). In particular, in mandate M-2010-0374 the Commission summarises the scope of the continuous data collection by referring to previous mandates and indicating additional substances:
“ The permanent data collection exercise could in principle encompass the whole field of contaminants in feed and food. However, to focus the work, it is appropriate also for the competent authorities and stakeholder organisations which have to provide data, to identify specific topics for which a permanent occurrence data collection exercise is to be set up. Several requests for data collections were already addressed by the Commission to EFSA e.g. on heavy metals, furan, acrylamide in food, etc. In annex to this letter, several topics which have not yet been the subject of a specific request are identified...”
On this basis, after consulting with the Commission and the appropriate Member State Network (DATEX Expert Group on Chemical Occurrence), a continuous call for data is now issued on a list of chemical contaminants, including backlog data not yet included in the EFSA database.
In a more general context and considering the efficiency of data transmission, EFSA welcomes receiving data on occurrence of other contaminants that have been determined in the same samples as the contaminants listed in this call. The EFSA data management system will make these data available to the future EFSA reports and risk assessments.
The Rules on use, disclosure and re-use of occurrence data in the area of contaminants in food and feed agreed by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 19 May 2010 (document available on request) are of application for this data collection.
Call for data
National food authorities, research institutions, academia, food business operators, and other stakeholders are invited to submit data on occurrence of any of the following substances:
|
Data collection |
Occurrence group name |
|
Process Contaminants |
OCC_GROUP2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Organic contaminants |
OCC_GROUP1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Inorganic |
OCC_GROUP4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mycotoxins |
OCC_GROUP3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Inherent plant toxins |
OCC_GROUP3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Organochlorine compounds |
OCC_GROUP1 |
|
Organochlorine compounds in feed regulated by Directive 2002/32/EC[1] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[1] Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 May 2002 on undesirable substances in feed
If data providers are willing to submit data on any other chemical contaminants not listed in the above table, a more detailed list of the data collection groups is provided in the below.
-
Data collection groups
(0.1 Mb)
Submitted data should be compliant with the Standard Sample Description (SSD) agreed between EFSA and the EU Member States and published in January 2010 (http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/scdocs/scdoc/1457.htm). The nature of the food samples should be always defined according to the catalogue “FOODEX” and be reported in the variable EFSAProdCode. Please, note that the catalogue “MATRIX” is of specific interest in reporting Pesticide Residues and its use is optional in the context of this call for data (use the available XXXXXXA code in the variable prodCode when MATRIX catalogue not available or applicable).
SSD compliance of data not generated according to this standard can be obtained in the following ways:
- through appropriate mapping in case of data existing in database form or
- using the provided excel sheets (simplified format) in case of manual entry.
Please, note that the simplified excel sheets insert text instead of codes when choosing from a standard catalogue. They need therefore further processing in EFSA to be transformed into fully compliant files.
Data can be submitted in electronic format (XML) or in the simplified Microsoft Excel reporting format. Electronic transmission in XML format is strongly suggested. The XML schema to validate the XML message can be downloaded from http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/scdocs/doc/1895ax1.zip (file: StandardSampleDescription.xsd).
More details on how to submit the occurrence data can be found at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/datexcallsfordata/datexsubmitdata.htm and in the Guidance on Data Exchange (http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/scdocs/doc/1895.pdf) .
The “Guidance on Standard Sample Description” and the “Generic Reporting Format” are generally applicable. For some contaminant groups listed in the same web page, specific additional rules are applicable. These are reported as instruction files and specific excel formats. The specific formats are not deviating from the general SSD, they only prescribe different status (optional/mandatory) for some fields and may restrict the catalogues to only the applicable entries.
Deadline for transmitting data: 1 October each year.
Contact details
Data should be transmitted using the EFSA web interface “Data Collection Framework (DCF)” (https://dcf.efsa.europa.eu/dcf-war). In order to receive access to the DCF web interface please contact datex@efsa.europa.eu.
In case data are compiled using the simplified excel file, they cannot be transmitted using the DCF web interface. In this case data should be sent to the e-mail address (contaminants@efsa.europa.eu).
Please address any technical inquiries regarding the reporting of data to datex@efsa.europa.eu
Veröffentlicht: 17 Dezember 2010
