in food and feed production. QPS appears to be applicable
to food, feed, and to microbial products from the
point of view of safety assessment; however there are a
number of issues that need careful consideration before
QPS could be introduced into the European safety
evaluation.
With the exception of those encompassed by the Novel
Food Regulation [Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 1997
concerning novel food and novel food ingredients (OJ No.
L 43, 14.2.1997)], micro-organisms used for fermentation of
food are presently not subject to community regulation. In
contrast, micro-organisms used as feed additives or plant
protect products are comprehensively regulated. This has
led to illogical situations where the same strains used freely
in human foods have been the subject of stringent safety
assessments when seeking community approval as a feed
additive. The QPS approach represents a possible route to
harmonisation of approaches for the safety assessment of
micro-organisms used in feed/food production without
introducing unnecessary measures in areas where there has
been no great concern about safety, while allowing more
important safety concerns to be addressed. Therefore, QPS
is suggested as an operating procedure within EFSA for
risk assessment.