MoniQA workshop on regulatory aspects of nanotechnology-enabled food products - steps towards harmonization of regulatory approaches

In view of the numerous challenges involved in assessing risk of nanotechnology-enabled food products a much-needed workshop of stakeholders (industry, consumer forums, academia, research community, regulators) was held at Fera, York, UK. The workshop took place on the 27^th and 28^th May 2010, and it was co-funded by MoniQA network of excellence (www.moniqa.eu) and Fera (www.fera.defra.co.uk).

The workshop objective was to explore possible ways for developing a harmonised approach to the risk assessment and regulatory issues arising from the use of nanotechnologies in food. In total, 34 participants representing industry (7), academia (6), governmental research institutes (14) and regulatory agencies (7) attended. Workshop participants included keynote speakers from different regulatory regions, i.e. the US, the EU, Australia and Japan.

General presentations and discussions on the current status regarding risk assessment of nanotechnology-enabled food products and the demonstration of a multi criteria decision making model that may be used for conducting tiered assessments of nanotechnology-enabled food products took place during the 1^st day and the beginning of the 2^nd day of the workshop.

Following general presentations and discussions, workshop participants were divided into three breakout groups; each breakout group evaluated the multi criteria decision making model presented in the workshop via two routes:

1. Workshop participants devised a number of hypothetical nanotechnology-enabled food products which they considered either as safe or unsafe; these products were afterwards “blindly” scored according to the multi criteria decision making model. This process allowed us to validate the model externally and assess its predictability value.
2. Workshop participants discussed a number of pre-defined points/issues relevant to (a) the value of the approach, i.e. the feasibility and applicability of the particular multi criteria decision making model for assessing the safety of nanotechnology-enabled food products; (b) reliability of the model, i.e. shortcomings of the current version of the model; (c) possible ways to develop the model further in order to address identified shortcomings and to comply with particular requirements of risk assessment of nanotechnology-enabled food products.

Full description of the developed multi criteria decision making model, the validation that took place during the workshop and evaluation of the model as a potential approach to assess safety of nanotechnology-enabled food products will be published soon.

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