Call for data for the evaluation of chlorate in tap water

EFSA-Q-number: EFSA-Q-2025-00706
Published: 27/02/2026
Deadline for submission of data: 30/06/2026

Background

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for conducting risk assessments related to food and feed safety. EFSA has received a request from the European Commission (EC) to evaluate the risks for human health associated with the presence of chlorate in food from all sources, taking also into account its presence in drinking water, as described in mandate M-2025-00108 (EFSA-Q-2025-00706). This request has been assigned to the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM Panel), which has established a Working Group (WG) on Chlorate to assist in developing a draft opinion.

In order to ensure a comprehensive assessment, and due to the specificity and the limited availability to EFSA of analytical data on chlorate in tap water, EFSA launches a public call for all relevant available analytical data on chlorate in tap water from interested parties. In addition to this call, EFSA — under the annual call for continuous collection of chemical contaminants — will collect all available analytical data for chlorate in food from all sources. EFSA will consider the relevant information provided for the risk assessment. The submission of the requested information is without prejudice to the final opinion of the CONTAM Panel.

Overall objective

The purpose of this call for data is to offer the opportunity to interested parties, such as water operators and water service providers, who collect analytical data on chlorate in tap water, to submit in a harmonised way this data to EFSA using the available reporting template.

Specific objectives

Specific Objective 1: EFSA is looking for analytical data on chlorate in tap water.

Data sought and data submission format

EFSA kindly invites interested parties to submit information, as outlined below:

- All occurrence data, received under this call, should be submitted through Portalino.

- All data records need to be prepared and shared with EFSA using a structured template, following the requirements of the SSD2 data model (template is attached in this call).

Important information

Analytical data submitted to EFSA must normally include all mandatory data elements, as defined in the Standard Sample Description version 2 (SSD2) data model.

For new data providers, completing all mandatory SSD2 elements may be difficult, as some information may not be available. To facilitate submission and maximize the collection of information on chlorate in tap water samples, EFSA — in agreement with DG SANTE and DG ENV — has reduced the number of mandatory elements necessary to be completed by the data providers. This is considered an exceptional case for the collection of tap water samples.

EFSA has, therefore, prepared a pre-filled Excel SSD2 template (Simplified_SSD2_mandatory elements for chlorates) for the submission of analytical data on chlorates in tap water, in which several mandatory elements have already been set. The values assigned to these pre-set elements are described in Annex I of the attached pdf document (Guide for SSD2 template_elements to be completed).

Data providers are requested to complete the remaining mandatory elements in the Excel SSD2 template, following the Guide, and upload the completed file(s) via Portalino, as indicated in the relevant section above.

Deadline for submission of data

Interested parties and stakeholders shall submit data by 30/06/2026 complying with the information described in this call.

Confidentiality

In order to comply with its requirements for proactive transparency, EFSA must, inter alia, make public the information on which its scientific outputs are based, as outlined in Article 38(1)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, the “General Food Law” (GFL) and Article 6(1)(i) of EFSA’s Practical Arrangements concerning transparency and confidentiality (“Practical Arrangements”). Information/data received in the context of the present call are subject to the afore-mentioned proactive transparency requirements insofar as they will constitute information on which scientific outputs, including scientific opinions, are based.

However, in accordance with Articles 39–39e of the General Food Law (GFL), confidential status may be awarded to information the disclosure of which might potentially harm the information owner to a significant degree. Provided that the conditions set out in Articles 39–39e and further detailed in EFSA’s Practical Arrangements are satisfied, EFSA must not make public any information/data for which confidential treatment has been requested and duly justified pending its confidentiality assessment where urgent action is essential to protect human health, animal health or the environment.

As mentioned above, EFSA’s proactive transparency obligations require publication of any data used in EFSA’s Scientific Outputs. To ensure compliance with EFSA’s transparency requirements and avoid possible disclosure of confidential information, interested parties may claim:

1. Confidentiality Requests for Personal Data and CBI

If your submission includes Personal Data (e.g. name and surname, email address) or Confidential Business Information (CBI) (e.g. commercial links to producers, information revealing sourcing, market shares or business strategy, the manufacturing/production process), please:

• Submit via Portalino both a confidential version (in which confidential information has been earmarked but remains visible) and a non-confidential version (in which confidential information has been irreversibly redacted) of the completed form.
• Submit via Portalino a separate confidentiality request for each part of your data that you want to claim confidential, using applicable legal grounds listed below.

You may claim confidentiality provided that:

1. the information falls within the scope of the closed list of information items listed in the Annex to EFSA’s Practical Arrangements and
2. the confidentiality request is accompanied by a verifiable justification that demonstrates how the public disclosure of the information/data for which confidential status is requested would harm your interests to a significant degree.
3. When claiming confidentiality for some of the information/data, both a non-confidential (public dissemination) and a confidential version of the information/data must be submitted as indicated here. A separate confidentiality request must be submitted for each document and for each legal ground under which information is claimed confidential. A precise description of the information/data claimed confidential must be provided to enable a clear identification, and the information/data claimed confidential must be earmarked in the confidential version and redacted in the non-confidential version.

For submissions which do not contain any confidential information, only a non-confidential (public dissemination) version has to be uploaded to Portalino. Additional information can be found in the User Guide on Confidentiality.

2. Portalino Registration Process

To submit data via Portalino, follow these steps:

1. Register in Connect.EFSA using this form
2. Create a profile in Portalino by sending an email to servicedesk [at] efsa.europa.eu with the following info:
   1. scope: call for data for the presence of chlorate in tap water
   2. full name, business/personal email
   3. in the heading of the email please insert: Call for data for the presence of chlorate in tap water

Note: Registration may take a few days, so we encourage you to start the process immediately to meet the deadline. When accessing Portalino, you will use the email and log-in info created by EFSA during the steps above (e.g. ending with “@net.efsa.europa.eu”).

Data submission of analytical data on Chlorate in tap water

Interested parties, such as water operators and water service providers, should submit their data in electronic format exclusively via the tool Submission Builder “Portalino”.

Submission of data in any other form (email, third party e-submission platforms, etc.) will not be accepted. More information on the data submission can be found in the section below “Data submission of analytical data on chlorate in tap water”.

Interested parties should submit the following information to EFSA via Portalino, clearly stating:

• in the Subject of the submission: Call for data EFSA-Q-2025-00706
• The contact details (name of contact person, name of organisation/company, e-mail address and telephone number) of the person responsible for the data submission and, if applicable, the list of interested parties and/or interested business operators represented and their contact details.

Information on how to use Portalino is available in the User guide on Portalino.

Please note that EFSA may, where legally possible, use or re-use relevant information or data (e.g., technical, toxicological data) for the assessment of the same or another substance/topic under the same or a different legal or regulatory framework from the one mentioned above.

Correspondence

Please address any enquiries to RAL [at] efsa.europa.eu.