EFSA issues guiding principles for two-year whole food studies
EFSA has set out guiding principles that will help scientists carry out two-year whole food feeding studies to assess the risk of cancer and/or toxicity from the long-term consumption of such foods by humans. The report gives advice on how to design and conduct long term whole food feeding trials on rodents in line with internationally-recognised standards and identifies the limitations of these types of studies. In addition, the Authority highlights that a decision on whether these studies are needed should be taken on a case-by-case basis and only after all existing toxicological, nutritional and compositional data have been evaluated. Setting clear and specific objectives prior to launching a study is also crucial. EFSA said its guiding principles would contribute to the future establishment of protocols for two-year carcinogenicity and chronic toxicity feeding studies for both whole food and whole feed.
The European Commission asked EFSA to develop these guiding principles after noting that no guidance existed on conducting two-year feeding studies to assess the safety of whole food. It ...