Open call for food additives analytical data and use levels in food and beverages intended for human consumption

Deadline for submission: 30/06/2026
Deadline for validation and acceptance of data: 31/08/2026

Background

Regulation (EC) No 1331/2008 establishes a common procedure for the assessment and authorisation of food additives, which shall be subject to a safety evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) before they are permitted for use in the European Union.

Under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010 food additives already permitted for use in the European Union before 20 January 2009 must be re-evaluated by EFSA. The Regulation also provides for food additives to be re-evaluated whenever necessary in the light of changing conditions of use and new scientific information.

This call for data is an open call and will be launched annually. However, it does not anticipate the yearly work programme of the Food Additives and Flavourings (FAF) Panel.

Submission of data

National food authorities, research institutions, academia, food business operators and other stakeholders are invited to submit analytical and use level data on food additives. The full list of food additives that can be reported and their corresponding codes are published with this call in the excel file ‘PARAM_addAnalysis_17.0.xlsx’. The preparation of this excel was based on version 17.0 of PARAM catalogue. The full list of restrictions and exceptions that can be reported and their corresponding codes are published with this call in the excel file ‘ADDFOOD_Restrictions_Exceptions.xlsx’. The preparation of this excel was based on version 8.0 of ADDFOOD catalogue.

The food additives listed in the table below are given priority for receiving relevant data.

Priority list of food additives:

*For erythritol (E 968), data are specially requested for foods within the following food categories:
-    03. Edible ices
-    07.2 Fine bakery wares
-    14.1.4 Flavoured drinks
The list of foods (FoodEx2 codes from the MTX catalogue) belonging to these food categories are available in the following file: ‘FoodEx2 codes_Erythritol.xlsx’.

How to submit data

Data must be submitted in electronic format (XML) to the EFSA Data Collection Framework (DCF) https://dcf.efsa.europa.eu/dcf-war/dc. User credentials are required to access the DCF web interface. Please, contact data.collection [at] efsa.europa.eu to obtain the credentials.

The annual major release of the catalogues (30/01/2026) can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.779880.

Guidance on the installation and use of the EFSA Catalogue browser can be found at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/supporting/pub/en-1726.

Analytical data will be reported under the Chemical Monitoring Data Collection. EFSA will only accept data in SSD2 (Standard Sample Description version 2) format. In case data are compiled manually using the EFSA tools available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3714966, the XML file must be generated for direct submission to the DCF. The guidance ‘Chemical monitoring reporting guidance: 2026 data collection’ should also be consulted for reporting requirements and is available at https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/sp.efsa.2026.EN-9911.

Use levels will be reported under the data collection on use levels. EFSA will only accept data using the data model format. In case data are compiled manually using the EFSA tools available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14893177, the XML file must be generated for direct submission to the DCF. The ‘Reporting guidance for use levels on food additives and food flavourings – 2026’ should also be consulted for reporting requirements and is available at https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2026.EN-9938.

The DCF will open for the reporting of food additives analytical data and use levels on 1 April 2026. The deadline for the complete transmission of all data through DCF is 30 June 2026. The last two months, period of 1 July – 31 August is set for the data validation and data acceptance in EFSA Scientific Data Warehouse (sDWH). 

Confidentiality

The communication below is not applicable to Member State competent authorities.

Please note that all confidentiality requests related to datasets submitted within the frame of this call for data must be submitted exclusively via Portalino. Submission of data in any other form (email, third party e-submission platforms, etc.) will not be accepted. 

Guidance about the confidentiality assessment process and information on how to submit confidentiality requests are available here and here. In addition, instructions on how to use Portalino are available here. Whenever a confidentiality request is submitted, a non-confidential version (in which the data claimed confidential has been redacted/blackened) and a confidential version (in which the data claimed confidential has been earmarked but remains visible) must be submitted.

Data providers should clearly indicate the data collection in which the dataset of concern was transmitted (e.g. Chemical Monitoring data collection 2026; Data Collection Framework (DCF) folder: CHEM_MON_SSD2_W2.2026) and dataset-ID as found in DCF.

Please note that confidentiality requests must be submitted via Portalino if information should be kept confidential since EFSA is required to proactively publish all data on which it bases its Scientific Output pursuant to Article 38(1)(d) of the GFL and Article 6(1) of EFSA’s Practical Arrangements concerning transparency and confidentiality after the adoption of the relevant scientific output/opinions.

Contact details

Please address any technical enquiries regarding the reporting of data to data.collection [at] efsa.europa.eu (data[dot]collection[at]efsa[dot]europa[dot]eu)