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Published July 15, 2019 | Version v8
Dataset Open

The list of QPS status recommended biological agents for safety risk assessments carried out by EFSA

  • 1. European Food Safety Authority
  • 2. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • 3. Spanish National Research Council (Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC)
  • 4. Universidad de León
  • 5. Teagasc
  • 6. Institute of Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (IRTA)
  • 7. French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Alimentation, de l'Environnement et du Travail, ANSES)
  • 8. Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
  • 9. Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna (Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO)
  • 10. University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien)
  • 11. National Food Agency
  • 12. Technical University of Denmark
  • 13. Faculdade de Farmacia da Universidade do Porto (FFUP)
  • 14. Veterinary Public Health Institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Aosta Valley (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, IZSPLVA)
  • 15. Agricultural University of Athens
  • 16. Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS – National Institute of Health)
  • 17. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
  • 18. Polytechnic University of Cartagena
  • 19. Universidad de Oviedo
  • 20. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • 21. Wageningen University
  • 22. Own Capital of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research

Description

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked the Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) to deliver a scientific Opinion on the maintenance of the list of qualified presumption of safety (QPS) biological agents. The QPS approach was developed by the EFSA Scientific Committee to provide a harmonised generic pre-evaluation to support safety risk assessments of biological agents intentionally introduced into the food and feed chain, in support of the concerned scientific Panels and Units in the frame of market authorisations.

The taxonomic identity, body of knowledge, safety and antimicrobial resistance of biological agents are assessed. Safety concerns identified for the respective taxonomic unit (TU) are, where possible and reasonable in number, reflected as ‘qualifications’ which should be assessed at the strain level by the EFSA’s scientific Panels.

Link to EFSA topic on QPS: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/qualified-presumption-safety-qps

Link to the virtual issue on QPS on Wiley Online Library: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1831-4732.QPS

 

The list of QPS status recommended biological agents, first established in 2007, has been continuously revised and updated through a scientific Opinion but since 2014 the evaluation is undertaken every 3 years and no longer carried out annually. If new information is retrieved from extended literature searches that would change the QPS status of a TU or its qualifications, this is published in the Panel Statement. The Panel Statement also includes the evaluation of microbiological agents notified to EFSA within the 6-month period for an assessment for feed additives, food enzymes, food additives and flavourings, novel foods or plant protection products. In result of each Panel Statement, the ‘2016 updated list of QPS status recommended biological agents for safety risk assessments carried out by EFSA scientific Panels and Units’ is updated with the inclusion of new recommendations for QPS status and is appended to the 2016 QPS scientific opinion.

Versions history:

Versions 1 and 2 were substituted by version 3 – all are associated with the QPS Panel statement EFSA 7: suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until September 2017: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5131

Version 4 is associated with the QPS Panel statement EFSA 8: suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until March 2018: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5315

Versions 5 and 6 were substituted by version 7 – all are associated with the QPS Panel statement EFSA 9: suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until September 2018: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5555

Version 8 is associated with the QPS Panel statement EFSA 10: suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until March 2019: https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5753

Notes

EU; txt; biohaz@efsa.europa.eu

Files

The 2016 updated list of QPS recommended biological agents.pdf

Additional details