Conference Report EFSA 15th scientific colloquium: Emerging risks in food - from identification to communication Andrea Altieri a, * , Tobin Robinson a , Marcel Mengelers b , Arie Havelaar c,d , Djien Liem a , Vittorio Silano a and Stef Bronzwaer a a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), L.Palli 5/a, I-43000 Parma, Italy (Tel.: D390521036330; fax: D3905210360330; e-mail: andrea.altieri@efsa. europa.eu) b Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA), Prinses Beatrixlaan 2, 2595 AL, The Hague, The Netherlands c Centre for Infectious Diseases Control Netherlands, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, PO Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands d Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, PO Box 80178, Utrecht, The Netherlands The increasing complexity of our food and feed production systems, the globalisation of trade, major environmental chal- lenges, and the introduction of novel foods and of new food processing technologies may give rise to new risks in the food chain. As a consequence, decision-makers are now becoming increasingly aware of the importance of having ro- bust systems in place to identify risks at their early inception. According to current EU Regulations on Food Safety, EFSA is mandated to “undertake action to identify and characterise emerging risks”, and in 2008 EFSA established, for this pur- pose, a dedicated unit on emerging risks. In October 2010, over 100 international experts from 29 countries gathered in Parma at the Colloquium on “Emerging Risks in Food - from Identification to Communication”, for an open scientific de- bate on four main topics related to emerging risks, namely: (i) available methods to identify new hazards and/or exposures and assess emerging risks; (ii) strategic sources of information for data collection; (iii) identification of drivers of change as underlying causes of emerging risks; (iv) opportunities for the establishment of an international network to communicate on emerging risks to risk managers and policy makers. The out- come of this discussion provides practical inputs for develop- ing of a European framework for emerging risks identification. In October, 2010, over 100 international experts from 29 countries, including US, Australia and New Zealand, gathered in Parma, Italy, for the Colloquium on “Emerging Risks in Food - from Identification to Communication”. Representatives from the European Commission, the Euro- pean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), EU Member States, pre-accession and potential candidate countries, several inter-governmental organizations (e.g. FAO and WHO), as well as several food companies took part in the Colloquium. This event is one of the Scientific Colloquium Series hosted since 2004 by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to provide a forum for inter- national debates on selected scientific issues related to risk assessment in food and feed. As other Colloquia, it was or- ganised in a way that provides ample opportunity for inter- active exchange of views and discussion amongst participating experts. Following a short plenary session consisting of a few introductory presentations, participants split up into different discussion groups. The outcome of these discussions were presented and discussed in a final plenary session to formulate the conclusions of the Collo- quium and, as appropriate, recommendations to EFSA. In a rapidly changing world, governments are frequently confronted with challenges arising from a broad range of domains. The increasing complexity of current food and feed production systems, the globalisation of trade, the in- troduction of novel foods and of new food processing * Corresponding author. 0924-2244/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2011.02.005 Trends in Food Science & Technology 22 (2011) 249e252