body of knowledge

The body of knowledge is mainly evaluated by searching in peer-reviewed articles of the available scientific knowledge indicating a certain degree of exposure of humans and animals through food and feed use. It includes the history of use of a TU in the agri-food system (occurrence in the food and feed chain) or in other sectors (e.g. biotechnological or medical applications). Certain aspects of the ecology of the microorganism are also taken into account: distribution of the TU in natural environments (e.g. as part of the human microbiota, of wild and farmed animals and in plant ecosystems) and their colonisation ability and routes for dispersal