Meeting

Updates from other Committees

ACM/1409

Last updated: 02 February 2023

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Science Council

Last open meeting: 8 December 2022   

  • The Chair presented a summary of her activity over the last 6 months. 
  • The FSA led a discussion of the FSA Science Update 2022 (FSA 22/12/07) to the FSA Board. 
  • The CSA updated the Council on his recent activity and discussions (including Government Office of Science’s review of SACs, changing FSA priorities this year, the Precision Breeding Bill). 
  • Updates from Science Council members attending Scientific Advisory Committees (SACs) and a proposed streamlining of members’ engagement. 

Next open meeting: 7 September 2023

 

Advisory Committee for Social Science (ACSS) 

Formally established in April 2018, the Advisory Committee for Social Science (ACSS) provides expert strategic advice to the FSA on the use of the social sciences.

Last meeting: 20th July 2022 (9th plenary, open session).  

Key update items:

  • Julie Hill has started her role as Chair of the ACSS.
  • Three new members joined the committee in October, Dr Charlotte Hardman, Professor Fiona Gillison and Dr Naomi Maynard. In October, we held a successful induction event to welcome the new members to the committee.
  • ACSS secretariat and Julie Hill attended the DEFRA SSEG (Social Science Expert Group) meeting in Cambridge in November.
  • 10th plenary on February 2nd 2023, attendees include Susan Jebb and members from DEFRAs SSEG secretariat.
  • Planning on the ACSS’s first networking event in the next financial year.

Working group highlights:

  • The Assurance working group have completed the ‘good science’ quality assurance toolkit to support the production of high-quality research within FSA social science. The group have also contributed to the Social Science Gateway Process, and as such review the research questions and methodology of all new social science projects.
  • The Kitchen Life 2 working group continues to support the innovative, cross-cutting and multi-disciplinary research project Kitchen Life 2. Fieldwork for the project has now been completed and several of the working group members attended the behavioural interventions workshop in November to generate hypotheses for behavioural intervention. Drafts of reports are expected in February 2023.
  • The Wider Consumer Interests working group continues to support this new ARI and focus on Household Food Insecurity and the Consumer Insight Tracker which the working group lead is conducting an in-depth review off.
  • The Economics working group have reviewed the economic work plan for the next financial year and are provided with monthly updates on key activity within the economics team.
  • The Climate Change and Consumer Behaviour working group had a recent publication around the impact of climate change on consumer food behaviours. The group has paused activity for the time being.

The next open meeting (10th Plenary) of the ACSS will be 2nd February 2023.

 

Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) 

Last meeting: 16th January 2023

  • A Precision Breeding workshop was held; a statement is due for publication on 23rd January (https://acnfp.food.gov.uk/Statements).

Next meeting:  7th and 8th February 2023

 

Products of Genetic Technologies (PGT) Subcommittee

Last PGT meeting: 19th December 2022

Highlight: All minutes of precedent meetings have now been agreed and will accompany next output to FPP before publication; the meeting included two Precision Breeding workshops.

Next meetings: 16th January 2023 (2h Precision Breeding workshop with main ACNFP); 1st February 2023 (PGT6 meeting).

 

CBD Subgroup

Last CBD meeting: 30th November 2022

Highlight: All minutes of precedent meetings have been reviewed and will be finalised at the January meeting before discussing output to FPP; meeting included a discussion surrounding the ACI Consortium dataset and how this package of data could potentially affect the reserved ADI of 10mg that was hypothesised in September.

Next meeting: 17th January 2023 (CBD4 – EIHA)

 

Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT)

Last meeting: 14th December 2022.

Topics discussed included:

At their December meeting the Committee discussed carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the aircraft cabin air environment, considered a discussion paper on EFSA’s 2022 assessment of the genotoxicity of acrylamide and a paper summarising the health-based guidance values for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They also considered how to take forward a review of Codex’s report on food allergen threshold levels.

The committee continued to work on the second draft statement on the potential risk to human health of turmeric and curcumin supplements and a second draft sub-statement on the potential risk(s) from exposure to microplastics: Inhalation route.

Next meeting: 7th February 2023.

 

Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC)  

Last meeting:17 November 2022

Meeting held as workshop - “Changing the paradigm: How should we assess cancer risk in the UK?”

Next meeting: 

16 March 2023

Further meetings:

20 July 2023

16 November 2023

 

The Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COM) 

Last meeting:  13 October 2022

Topics discussed included:  

  • Review of EFSA opinion on titanium dioxide
  • Tetramethyl bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (TMBPF-DGE)
  • can coating (reserved)
  • Horizon scanning
  • Draft guidance statement “The Use of Biomarkers in Genotoxicity Risk Assessment
  • Non expert summaries for COM website

Next meeting: 

23 February 2023

Further meetings:

15 June 2023

12 October 2023

 

Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN)

Last meeting: 11 November 2022

Topics discussed included:

  • Feeding young children aged 1-5
  • Vitamin D fortification update
  • Updated SACN framework

Next meeting: 16 March 2023 

Further meetings: 22 June and 23 November 2023 

  

Advisory Committee on Animal Feeding stuffs (ACAF)

Last meeting: 6 October 2022

The plenary discussed:

  • Dimethylglycine sodium salt RP665
  • Hostazym RP593
  • Lactococcus lactis DSM 11037 RP686
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae RP694

 

9 December 2022 ACAF Meeting Summary

  • Minutes discussed from the last meeting, any changes that need to be made have been noted. (ACAF/81/01)
  • Dossier for assessment RP709 ProAct 360 – the application was reviewed and the applicant will be asked to provide further information.
  • Dossier for assessment RP746 Agal-Pro - the application was reviewed and the applicant will be asked to provide further information.
  • Dossier for assessment RP748 Coxam - the application was reviewed and the applicant will be asked to provide further information.
  • Dossier for assessment RP791 Lactobacillus buchneri - the application was reviewed, and the applicant will be asked to provide further information.
  • Reviewed the RFI responses for RP1071, RP226, RP416, RP666 and RP686.
  • Draft opinions were evaluated for RP557, 600 – RP140, 141, 142, 284, RP641. The members provided feedback on the content and finalised previous opinions. All opinions on these are agreed by the committee so can go out.
  • The committee members workload and expertise were discussed, the number of meetings per year, including discussion on virtual meetings and in person meetings, and discussed areas where new members will be needed.
  • Members discussed how they can share information potentially of interest to other ACAF members. Was suggested to share it through the secretariat first.
  • Discussion on what can be done to make it easier for members to navigate through the applications.

Next meeting: 15 February 2023

 

Secretariat

February 2023