Introduction

This is a paper for discussion. It does not reflect the views of the Committee and should not be cited.

Introduction

1.               The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Scientific Committee (SC) have recently published a Scientific Opinion on the guidance on the use of read-across for chemical safety assessment in food and feed (EFSA SC, 2025). The document briefly reviews existing frameworks on read-across from organisations such as the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The guidance goes on to describe a structured workflow to standardise and justify the read-across approach as a non-animal testing method for filling data gaps in chemical safety assessments, along with a discussion on the applicability domain and characterisation of the boundaries for read-across. The opinion also includes a series of appendices on read-across processes (Appendix A), information on available in vitro methods for toxicological characterisation of chemical substances (Appendix B), an uncertainty assessment template (Appendix C), case study examples (Appendix D) and a glossary of relevant terms and definitions (Appendix E).

2.               This paper provides a brief overview of the EFSA Scientific Opinion. Its purpose is to support discussion around the guidance developed by EFSA. Members are invited to review the Scientific Opinion and share any comments or feedback they may have, with a view to determining whether they would be content to use the guidance.