When a chemical is found in a food product that is already on the market, a risk assessment can calculate whether it could pose a health hazard. A risk assessment can also determine before admission of a substance whether that substance is allowed to be in food products or may be used in food production – and if so, in which amounts. During an admission process for chemicals in food, threshold limits are derived for that substance. A risk assessment goes through various steps to determine whether there is a risk of health effects due to exposure to a chemical substance.

These are risk assessments by the Front Office Food and Product Safety that have been published since 2013:

The presentations of the symposium are available for download.

EFSA and RIVM organised an international symposium to reflect on the state of play in research with regard to the risk assessment and toxicity testing of chemical mixtures in Europe. On 18 and 19 May 2016, Dutch researchers, scientists, stakeholders and policy-makers were joined by their European and international peers to discuss scientific progress in this field. 

Every day, we are exposed to a mixture of substances via food, the air and our skin. Much progress has been made in developing methods for assessing the risk to public health of such exposures to multiple chemicals. To report on the scientific progress in the whole area of chemical mixture risk assessment and to discuss the feasibility and prioritisation for future testing in Europe and beyond, EFSA and RIVM organised a symposium  on 18-19 May 2016. 

The partnership between the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is directed to making the Monte Carlo Risk Assessment (MCRA) model accessible to all countries and stakeholders in the European Union that have to assess the safety of pesticides.