Webinar on the Food Enzyme Intake Model (FEIM) Tool

Background

Food enzymes play a technical role in the production of foods. According to Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008, the safety of all food enzymes, already on the EU market or new ones, should be evaluated by EFSA. The outcome of this evaluation supports the European Commission to prepare a Community List for food enzymes.

Dietary exposure is an integral part of the safety assessment of food enzymes; however, exposure cannot be estimated by multiplying the enzyme use level directly with the food consumption data. To overcome the major challenge of tracing food enzymes through the food production chain, from 2016 to 2022 EFSA collated a catalogue of food groups and technical factors for 40 food manufacturing processes in which food enzymes maybe be used. This catalogue contains input data to synchronise the enzyme usage levels with consumption data stored in the European Food Consumption Database, thus, allowing the estimation of the dietary exposure to food enzymes.

Alongside the publication of this catalogue in June 2023, EFSA also developed a Food Enzyme Intake Model (FEIM) webtool. A beta test with interested stakeholders in May 2024,  the FEIM webtool was released in July 2024. This webtool can be used to calculate chronic dietary exposure to food enzymes through foods produced in one or more food manufacturing processes.

The FEIM webtool received much positive feedback from end users in the recent “Technical meeting on applications for food enzymes”, in October 2024. To enhance knowledge transfer, EFSA offered two interactive and hands-on training sessions in June 2025 for end users.

The two training sessions were identical in content and format. One session was held in the afternoon, the second one in the morning, to accommodate participants from different geographic locations. EFSA staff explained and showed the key features of the FEIM webtool, from calculation to reporting, also guided the participants to perform default and refined calculations by changing features in the webtool.

Objectives of the event

The event was intended for stakeholders interested in using the FEIM webtool for calculation. All features available in the tool were explored. During the event, participants had the opportunity to discuss issues encountered during the exercise with the FEIM webtool.

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