Statement on the update of the list of QPS‐recommended biological agents intentionally added to food or feed as notified to EFSA 3: Suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until September 2015

Abstract

EFSA was requested to assess the safety of a broad range of biological agents in the context of notifications for market authorisation as sources of food and feed additives, enzymes and plant protection products. The qualified presumption of safety (QPS) assessment was developed to provide a harmonised generic pre‐assessment to support safety risk assessments performed by EFSA's scientific Panels. The safety of unambiguously defined biological agents (at the highest taxonomic unit appropriate for the purpose for which an application is intended), and the completeness of the body of knowledge was assessed. Safety concerns identified for a taxonomic unit are, where possible and reasonable in number, reflected as ‘qualifications’ in connection with a recommendation for a QPS status. A total of 49 biological agents were notified to EFSA between March and September 2015. From these, 24 biological agents already had a QPS status and did not require further evaluation, and 16 were not included as they are filamentous fungi or enterococci, biological groups which have been excluded from the QPS activities since 2014. Three notifications for Streptomyces were not included because the genus have already been evaluated in the previous statement of December 2014 and found unsuitable for QPS. Two notifications belonging to the species Escherichia coli were not evaluated for QPS status, because this species was recently re‐assessed and considered not suitable for QPS status. Therefore, there were four notifications related to four taxonomic units that were evaluated for QPS status. Pasteuria nishizawae may be recommended for the QPS status to be used in plant protection products to combat cyst nematodiasis. The other three units were not recommended for the QPS list: gen. nov. sp. nov. DSM 11798 of the Coriobacteriaceae family, Chromobacterium subtsugaeand Pseudomonas chlororaphis.

Update of the list of QPS‐recommended biological agents intentionally added to food or feed as notified to EFSA 12: suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until March 2020

“…Body of knowledge P. chlororaphis is typically an aerobic heterotroph, but has also been shown to perform denitrification within the rhizosphere, thus having biogeochemical significance in terms of producing dinitrogen gas from nitrate (Palleroni, 2005). It is mesophilic with an ideal growth temperature range between 20°C and 28°C and grows best around a pH of 6.3-7.5 (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2015).…”

Assessment of genetically modified maize DP23211 for food and feed uses, under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (application EFSA‐GMO‐NL‐2019‐163)

“…The source organism of the gene coding for the IPD072Aa protein ( Pseudomonas chlororaphis) has been reported to protect plants by producing compounds that inhibit fungal growth (EFSA, 2017c ; EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2015 ), insects and nematodes and it is used in agriculture (Anderson et al., 2018 ; Anderson & Kim, 2018 ). The GMO Panel considers this information not sufficient to support the history of consumption of the newly expressed protein.…”

Update of the list of qualified presumption of safety (QPS) recommended microbiological agents intentionally added to food or feed as notified to EFSA 18: Suitability of taxonomic units notified to EFSA until March 2023

“…This microorganism had been notified before but was excluded from QPS assessment as the taxonomic unit of the strain was not identified (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2015 ).…”