EFSA has claimed CEO got its facts wrong in our recent article about conflicts of interest at EFSA. EFSA's response to CEO shows that the agency is failing to properly deal with conflicts of interest. Perhaps EFSA needs to read its own guidance on what its panel members need to declare? Read CEO's response to EFSA.
New research by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has found that 11 out of the 20 experts on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel on food additives (ANS) have a conflict of interest, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Earth Open Source and Corporate Europe Observatory have written to EFSA's executive director about undeclared current activities with ILSI by an EFSA panel member. EFSA has so far not acted on this case, which sheds doubts on the implementation of EFSA's new independence rules. Not declaring such activities was in contradiction to the former rules, too.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for assessing and communicating food safety in the European Union, for everything from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to pesticides. However EFSA has recently been criticised because its scientific assessments of new GM crops and pesticides rely almost exclusively on corporate research data. Some EFSA experts have also been accused of being too close to the food and drink industry .
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making.
