In the News

EU Members Asked to Monitor Perfluoroalkylated Substances in Food

Apr 6, 2010

The European Commission (EC) has requested that Member States monitor the presence of perfluoroalkyated substances (PFAS) in food over the course of 2010 and 2011, and submit reports to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the results. The EC recommendation was published the Official Journal of the European Union on March 18, 2010.

The EC requested that the monitoring include perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and their precursors—such as perfluorooctane sulphonamide (PFOSA), N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol (NEtFOSE), and 8:2 fluorotelomer alcohol—in addition to similar compounds of other chain lengths (C4-C15).

In February 2008, EFSA's Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain published an opinion on PFOS, PFOA, and their salts (see The EFSA Journal (2008) 653, pp. 1-131), in which it stated that more data on PFAS levels in food and humans was desirable, especially with respect to monitoring exposure trends. The panel concluded that while it was unlikely that adverse effects from PFOS and PFOA were occurring in the general population, uncertainties with regards to developmental effects in living organisms existed.