The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released new guidance on July 4, 2018 for nanotechnologies in food and feed. This guidance covers novel foods, food contact materials, food and feed additives, and pesticides and addresses new developments since the previous publication of guidance in 2011. A draft was released earlier in 2018, which Vireo Advisors reported on. The final guidance is a compendium of the current state of science outlining (i) information requirements and (ii) approaches for risk and safety assessments of nanomaterials in food and feed. It includes important considerations when completing physical and chemical characterization of nanomaterials in food/feed and a step-wise framework for hazard identification.

EFSA will release a second guidance in 2019 which will focus on environmental risk assessment of nanoscience and nanotechnology in the food and feed chain. For more information, please see the published guidance.