OPINION PAPER: Quo vadis – EFSA?

Abstract

In times when human life and quality of life remain threatened by infectious diseases, increasing microbial resistance and a diminished armamentarium of treatments, you might think that the European Commission would urgently seek and encourage alternative approaches. On the contrary, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has created a panel that has ignored good science, over-ridden peer-reviewed medical studies, and seems intent on breaking the back of a validated approach to infectious disease management, namely probiotics. The recent rejection of a simple and quite bland claim related to vaginal health emphasises the travesty of this bureaucracy. Herein, the science fights back and counters the critique of EFSA.