The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK commissioned the Committee on Toxicity Codex Subgroup to review the Codex Expert Committee report on establishing thresholds for levels of globally important allergens. The Committee’s task was to assess the robustness of the scientific approach underlying the Reference Doses (RfDs).
The core objective of this review was to address critical questions, including:
- Representativeness of Data: Is the data used for establishing thresholds adequately representative of the UK population?
- Addressing Key Gaps: are there significant gaps that demand attention before the UK can embrace the recommended RfDs? If such gaps exist, can they be addressed through existing published literature?
- Impact on Public Health: Is there substantial evidence indicating that adopting reference doses based on ED05, in contrast to ED01 values, would not exert a significant impact on public health?
The report’s findings indicated that there was no evidence to suggest inadequate representativeness of data for the UK population. However, the report raises questions about the choice of ED05 as the endorsed reference dose compared to ED01. The complete report is available here.
