Fosie (project)

FOSIE is a research programme, funded by the Thematic Programme 1 ‘Quality of Life (QoL)’ within the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission.

Duration of the project: 1 January 2000 to 1 January 2003

FOSIE Contract number: QLK1-1999-00156

Co-ordinator: Dr. Juliane Kleiner

Objectives

"The general paradigm for risk assessment, namely identification of hazard, characterisation of hazard, assessment of exposure and characterisation of risk, is widely accepted and has been agreed on by the Codex Alimentarius. The principles of this approach will be used in the future for evaluation of chemicals consumed in food and are embodied in the SPS agreement of the WTO. However, it is not laid down how the risk assessment should be performed in practice and there is less agreement on requirements of each stage in the process or how some components of the overall database should be applied. Therefore the project focused on the following objectives:

1. to carry out a detailed state-of-the-art appraisal of all stages involved in risk assessment and seek to integrate these in the most relevant manner for assessing risk using a matrix approach;
2. to explore means of improving the principles applied to, and scientific basis of, risk assessment with respect to natural toxicants, food additives and contaminants in the food chain, including possible interactions between individual chemicals and effects of the food matrix;
3. to identify gaps in knowledge that might lead to differences in interpretation of toxicological and exposure data, and the research need to reduce these;
4. to determine the nature and level of testing needed for safety evaluation relevant to the nature of the chemical, level of use/occurrence in the diet and human exposure (including novel foods and processes, nutritional supplements);
5. to add a European contribution to international initiatives to harmonise principles, terminology and methodology for risk assessment;
6. to contribute towards a consensus on risk assessment issues that is scientifically transparent and justifiable;
7. to assist risk managers in developing appropriate, defensible food standards that adequately protect the safety of the consumer whilst allowing for innovation in food production and processing."