EFSA's AFC panel to splite

EFSA's Scientific Panel on food additives, flavourings, processing aids and materials in contact with food (AFC Panel) will branch into two separate Panels by mid 2008, in order to increase further EFSA's pool of expertise and to accelerate processes in a field where output is particularly high. This decision had been taken during EFSA Management Board on 11 September 2007, and now the new panels had been defined:

• Panel on food additives and nutrient sources added to food (ANS)
• Panel on food contact materials, enzymes, flavourings and processing aids (CEF)

Each of them will have a maximum of 21 members (not yet designed) which are going to be expert in all relevant fields, such as toxicology, risk assessment, food consumption, exposure assessment, food technology and microbiology.

As a result, it will be possible to group together areas which require similar types of expertise or follow similar evaluation procedures, while distributing the workload evenly between the two new Panels. So, it will help to accelerate EFSA's processes in responding to a high number of requests for scientific advice within tight deadlines, which is set to increase further with the adoption of EU legislation in the pipeline.

UPDATE to 1 jan 2010: news automatic imported from old Food Packages' website