Partnerships with Member States: enhancing cooperation for EU food safety risk assessment.

This editorial summarises a longer note (95th Meeting of the EFSA Management Board, item 7. Available online: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/event/mb95/item-07-doc1-partnership-with-mss-230622-d2.pdf) submitted to Management Board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for consideration prior to a discussion held in its 95th meeting, in June 2023. It presents the context and the framework of EFSA's current scientific cooperation activities and the vision of transitioning towards long-term partnerships as the necessary evolution for the sustainability of food safety risk assessment in the EU. This new approach needs strategic alignment and political will to ensure the involvement of risk assessment organisations in the Member States. For that purpose, Management Board members can act as key advocates towards national risk managers and policy makers.

Determination of phytase activity in feed: interlaboratory study.

An interlaboratory study was conducted to determine the performance characteristics of a new method for the determination of phytase activity in feed samples. The method is based on the principle that inorganic phosphate is released from the substrate phytate under defined assay conditions and has been validated for its suitability to measure the enzyme activity of various phytase products. Two different experimental designs of the study were applied, allowing for the estimation of the precision of the method under repeatability, intermediate precision and reproducibility conditions, respectively. The relative standard deviation for repeatability (RSDr) ranged from 2.2 to 10.6% and the RSD for reproducibility (RSDR) ranged from 5.4 to 15%. The suitability of the validated method for the intended purpose was demonstrated. The obtained performance profile of the method validated in this study was comparable to that of similar methods that were exclusively validated for one phytase product.

Validation of an analytical method for the determination of spiramycin, virginiamycin and tylosin in feeding-stuffs by thin-layer chromatography and bio-autography.

An inter-laboratory validation was carried out to determine the performance characteristics of an analytical method based on thin-layer chromatography (TLC) coupled to microbiological detection (bio-autography) for screening feed samples for the presence of spiramycin, tylosin and virginiamycin. Twenty-four samples including blank samples and samples with concentrations of the target analytes ranging between 1 and 5 mg kg(-1) (expressed in microbiological activity) were analysed by seven laboratories participating in the study. The required detection limit was 1 mg kg(-1) (expressed in microbiological activity). For spiramycin, acceptable values for the sensitivity (at least 95%) indicating the rate of correct positive results were obtained for samples containing this substance at or above 2 mg kg(-1), whereas at 1 mg kg(-1), the sensitivity rate dropped to about 70%. Therefore, it was concluded that the detection limit was 2 mg kg(-1). For tylosin and virginiamycin, acceptable values of the sensitivity were obtained for all concentrations including 1 mg kg(-1). Therefore, the method fulfils the criterion regarding the required sensitivity at the target detection limit for tylosin and virginiamycin.