Edible insects Novel food FOI to the FSA

Today we submitted an Edible insects as Novel Food FOI request to the FSA. The assessment of Novel Food was a function previously carried out at a EU level. Since the end of the Brexit transition period this has become the responsibility of the FSA/FSS, in accordance with current legislation.

In 2018 the Plenary of the EU parliament adopted the Regulation for transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment in the food chain (Retained Regulation (EU) 2019/1381).

The above retained Regulation (EU) 2019/1381 amends retained Novel Food Regulation EU Novel Foods Regulations EC 2015/2283, and imposes scientific documents to be made publicly available at the start of an risk assessment process, as well as information such as applicant details, application summaries etc.

This FOI request has been raised in relation to the public release of the information concerning all ongoing applications for whole edible insects and food products containing edible insects. We are requesting the information concerning edible insects only, however anyone interested in other Novel Food Products like for example CBD, may want to check that all the information is published online (see for example the dataset recently published by the FSA for CBD).

We will publish a reply as soon as we receive one, which is expected in the next 20 days

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Dear Food Standards Agency,

The requirements laid down in retained EU Novel Foods Regulations EC 2015/2283 (Art 10) as amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/1381 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on the transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment in the food chain and amending Regulations (EC) No 178/2002, (EC) No 1829/2003, (EC) No 1831/2003, (EC) No 2065/2003, (EC) No 1935/2004, (EC) No 1331/2008, (EC) No 1107/2009, (EU) 2015/2283 and Directive 2001/18/EC (Text with EEA relevance), mandate the information which the competent authority should make publicly available.

We request that, in accordance with the aforementioned regulations, information on all on-ongoing Novel Food applications and notifications of traditional food from a third country, related to whole edible insects or products containing edible insects, be published online.

As mandated by the regulations can you please publish, applicant names, dossier’s summaries and whether or not the applicant requested data protection under EU Novel Foods Regulations EC 2015/2283 Article 27(1).

As of today 10/04/2022, we have been unable to locate the information:

– a search of FOI releases shows there is no previous FOI concerning this matter

– the required information could not be located in any of the online resources as mentioned below:

– There is no information regarding the full list of ongoing applications or a dataset in the food catalogue https://data.food.gov.uk/

-The register of regulated product applications https://www.food.gov.uk/risk-analysis/register-of-regulated-product-applications

– foodgov.gov.uk points to the list of already authorised Novel foods https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2017/2470/annex/2017-12-20 but does not provide information on ongoing Novel Food applications and notifications of traditional food from a third country.

–  the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes website https://acnfp.food.gov.uk/ACNFPNovelFoodAssessments does not contain information on ongoing Novel Food assessments or consultation.

We are aware that a number of authorization requests have been submitted last year, and we have therefore concluded that the information has not being published. Should this not be the case, can you kindly provide us with links to access the relevant documentation online.

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