EFSA scientists organised a colloquium on emerging risks on 12 and 13 October bringing together a broad range of specialists from different fields of expertise, reflecting the complexity of this area of EFSA's work. During the two-day colloquium, participants discussed the Authority's methodological framework for the identification of emerging risks related to the food supply chain.

The colloquium was attended by over 100 experts coming from 29 countries, including many pre-accession and potential candidate countries as well as the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Among other topics, participants discussed: methods to identify emerging risks; sources of information and strategies for data collection; identification of drivers of change as underlying causes of emerging risks; EFSA's ability to engage with a broad range of experts from a wide variety of fields, stressing the importance of international collaboration; and potential challenges regarding communication on emerging risks in particular the need to ensure transparency in EFSA's work in this area without causing undue concern and the need for close coordination with risk managers.

Participants recognised the work that has been achieved to date and indicated that the on-going methodological developments are on the right track. Although there was general agreement that EFSA was the logical body to coordinate this area of scientific work, participants insisted that access to a broad spectrum of experts would be a critical success factor for the Authority's future work in this area. From EFSA's perspective, the colloquium provided valuable input for the future development of its work on emerging risks which will be discussed in different scientific fora and further developed in collaboration with risk assessors and managers.

The outcome of the colloquium will be summarised in a report [click here]:

Publication of Technical Report

EFSA's 15th scientific colloquium on Emerging Risks coincides with the publication of its Technical Report, Development and implementation of a system for the early identification of emerging risks in food and feed [click here].

Call for experts

Experts interested in the challenging field of emerging risk identification are encouraged to submit their applications to EFSA's Expert Database. To fulfil its mission in the area of emerging risks, EFSA is looking for expertise in all fields of biological and chemical risks that may affect the food supply chain and could subsequently have an impact upon human, plant and/or animal health. In addition to the traditional life science competencies typically associated with its risk assessment work, EFSA is seeking to elicit expertise from many other disciplines including but not exclusively; food technologists, climate change specialists and international agricultural trade commodity experts.

For more information on becoming an EFSA expert, click here.