Results on the monitoring of furan levels in food
This report was prepared by the Data Collection and Exposure Unit of the European Food Safety Authority. The Authority wishes to thank Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom for submitting data on furan content in foods to EFSA. EFSA further wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Drs Wegener, Fürst and Wenzl in relation to the analytical methods used and Drs Kuballa and Heppner for reviewing the overall document.
No abstract available
Furan is an organic compound used in various chemical manufacturing industries which has been shown to be carcinogenic in animal studies. It can also form in foods during commercial or domestic heat treatment, including home cooking. It is known to occur in foods such as coffee, canned and jarred foods including baby food containing meat, and various vegetables.
As a self-tasking activity EFSA’s CONTAM Panel reviewed the presence of furan in heat-treated foodstuffs and adopted a
report on provisional findings on furan in foodin December 2004. A joint workshop on furan in food was then organised in May 2006 by DG Health and consumers, EFSA and the European Commission Joint Research Centre to gather information on the status of analytical methods for furan and on data needs for risk assessment.
In order to address information gaps, EFSA issued a call for scientific data in late 2006 and in March 2007 the European Commission asked Member States to monitor the presence of furan in heat treated food products to allow for a more comprehensive risk assessment than was previously possible. EFSA was asked to compile these data in an occurrence report.
This report presents the findings of data submitted to EFSA by Member States. The results will be complemented by two ongoing projects on the influence of food preparation and exposure to furan by inhalation during cooking. These projects are being undertaken following the award of grants under
Article 36
of EFSA’s Founding Regulation. The resulting data sets, expected towards the end of 2009, should allow EFSA to produce a more robust assessment of exposure through different routes including inhalation.
