Emerging chemical risks in food and feed

The EFSA process of Environmental Scanning and Strategic Options Definition aims at identifying knowledge gaps and opportunities to fulfil EFSA's mission more efficiently and contribute to the definition of EFSA's work programme and long-term strategy. The identification of trends, drivers of change and emerging risks in the fields within EFSA's mission is one of the objectives of this process. The Member States and stakeholders in the EFSA knowledge networks for emerging risks, namely the Emerging Risks Exchange Network (EREN) and the Stakeholder Discussion Group on Emerging Risks (StaDG-ER), have identified several emerging chemical issues/risks and analysed them according to the EFSA definition of emerging risks and characterisation criteria. In addition, various EFSA projects have been conducted for the identification of emerging chemical issues/risks using a wide range of methodologies and tools, like text and data mining, drivers’ analysis, foresight and chemical analysis (suspect screening, non-target analysis). In these projects, a variety of specific emerging chemical issues/risks have been identified and drivers of emerging risks explored (climate change, blue economy, circular economy). This technical report provides an overview of EFSA's activities related to emerging chemicals in the period 2020-2023. Identified emerging chemicals as well as the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the overall identification process in place, with a particular focus on its sustainability in the long term, are reported. In the context of the latest regulatory developments related to the set-up of an early warning system for emerging chemicals, actions to maximise opportunities and minimise weaknesses are described. They focus on collaborative efforts with a wide range of organisations for a permanent and sustainable emerging chemical risks identification system and developments to support the exchange of information on emerging chemical risks via specialised platforms.