EFSA Journal (Jul 2020)

Update of the list of QPS‐recommended biological agents intentionally added to food or feed as notified to EFSA 12: suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until March 2020

  • EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ),
  • Kostas Koutsoumanis,
  • Ana Allende,
  • Avelino Alvarez‐Ordóñez,
  • Declan Bolton,
  • Sara Bover‐Cid,
  • Marianne Chemaly,
  • Robert Davies,
  • Alessandra De Cesare,
  • Friederike Hilbert,
  • Roland Lindqvist,
  • Maarten Nauta,
  • Luisa Peixe,
  • Giuseppe Ru,
  • Marion Simmons,
  • Panagiotis Skandamis,
  • Elisabetta Suffredini,
  • Pier Sandro Cocconcelli,
  • Pablo Salvador Fernández Escámez,
  • Miguel Prieto Maradona,
  • Amparo Querol,
  • Juan Evaristo Suarez,
  • Ingvar Sundh,
  • Just Vlak,
  • Fulvio Barizzone,
  • Michaela Hempen,
  • Lieve Herman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6174
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 7
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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Abstract The qualified presumption of safety (QPS) was developed to provide a generic safety evaluation for biological agents to support EFSA's Scientific Panels. It is based on an assessment of the taxonomic identity, the body of knowledge, safety concerns and antimicrobial resistance. Safety concerns identified for a taxonomic unit (TU) are where possible to be confirmed at strain or product level, reflected by ‘qualifications’. No new information was found that would change the previously recommended QPS TUs of the 39 microorganisms notified to EFSA between October 2019 and March 2020, 33 were excluded, including five filamentous fungi, five Escherichia coli, two Enterococcus faecium, two Streptomyces spp. and 19 TUs already evaluated. Six TUs were evaluated. Akkermansia muciniphila was not recommended for QPS status due to safety concerns. Clostridium butyricum was not recommended because some strains contain pathogenicity factors. This TU was excluded for further QPS evaluation. Galdieria sulphuraria and Pseudomonas chlororaphis were also rejected due to a lack of body of knowledge. The QPS status of Corynebacterium ammoniagenes (with the qualification ‘for production purposes only’) and of Komagataella pastoris (with the qualification ‘for enzyme production’) was confirmed. In relation to the taxonomic revision of the Lactobacillus genus, previously designated Lactobacillus species will be reassigned to the new species and both the old and new names will be retained in the QPS list.

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