EFSA's activities on emerging risks in 2021

Abstract

The main objectives of EFSA's activities on emerging risks are: (i) to carry out activities to identify emerging risks; (ii) to develop and improve emerging risk identification (ERI) methodologies and approaches; and iii) to communicate on identified issues and risks. The outcome of these activities allows EFSA to prepare for future risk assessment challenges. EFSA networks of knowledge contributing to the ERI activity include the Emerging Risks Exchange Network, the Stakeholder Discussion Group on Emerging Risks, EFSA's scientific units, scientific panels and the Scientific Committee and its working groups. The current technical report summarises the activities of all groups involved in the ERI procedure and the issues identified in the course of 2021; it also describes the methodologies being developed and the collaborative activities. In total, 18 potential emerging issues were discussed in 2021. Eight were concluded to be emerging risks. The potential issues were classified according to the hazard and/or driver identified. In more than half of the issues discussed in 2021, a change in consumer trends was identified as a driver. A better understanding of these trends is particularly relevant for EFSA to improve preparedness. In addition, in 2021 the Emerging Risks Exchange Network members presented and discussed a total of 35 signals/potential emerging issues identified by their own horizon-scanning activities. Several Member States representatives shared their work on signal identification with the objective of collecting additional information that can be used for a better characterisation of the retrieved signals. Finally, several procurements are ongoing in EFSA to develop methodologies for ERI in specific areas of interest. The implementation of more effective and comprehensive methods to proactively collect, share and disseminate knowledge in the landscape of emerging risks is crucial for EFSA's preparedness risk assessment scheme.