COT 2025 meeting notes
COT Meeting: 4th February 2025
At their February meeting the Committee reviewed 2 reserved items:
- A joint position paper from the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) & Committee on Toxicity (COT) on establishing a Safe Upper Limit for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and its precursor as contaminants of hemp-derived products and CBD novel foods Draft Statement (Reserved).
- A draft Committee Advice Document on the recycled poly (ethylene terephthalate) decontamination process for use in the manufacture of materials and articles in contact with food RP 1862 (Reserved).
They continued their work on the maternal diet with a discussion on mercury and considered further information on deriving a health-based guidance value for antimony to support development of UK Drinking Water Standards.
In addition, they reviewed 2 requests for comment on EFSA’s Public Consultations:
- The EFSA Panel on Food Additive and Flavourings (FAF) ‘Draft guidance on the preparation of an application for authorisation of a food additive submitted under 4 Regulation (EC) No 1331/2008’ TOX/2025/05.
- EFSA Draft Guidance for Public Consultation: Draft guidance document on the submission of data for the evaluation of the safety and efficacy of substances for the removal of microbial surface contamination of foods of animal origin intended for human consumption TOX/2025/08.
Finally, the Committee discussed the draft 2024 Annual report, 2025 horizon scanning and potential topics for the annual COT workshop.
At their March meeting the Committee reviewed 3 reserved items:
- COT Workshop Report- Gut Reactions: xenobiotics and the microbiome (Reserved).
- Working Group on Plant-based drinks- Draft Report (Reserved).
- Review of the safety of ashwagandha in food, drinks and food supplements (Reserved).
In addition, they reviewed a Risk Assessment of T2 and HT2 mycotoxins in food, and a risk ranking scheme for emerging marine biotoxins.
Finally, the Committee listed to presentations from the FSA Fellow and PhD student updating the Committee on their progress.
COT Meeting: 9th September 2025