European Food Safety Authority

As stated by Hanna Schebesta and Kai Purnhagen, the authors of EU Food Law, the EFSA contributes to a public Food Additives list posted by the European Commission that catalogs all food-related chemicals and relevant information for each of them. This additional information includes specific conditions for use, food items the chemical may be found in, and restrictions on the amount that can be used.

The EFSA cooperates with the national food safety authorities of the 27 EU member states, Iceland and Norway, as well as observers from Switzerland and EU candidate countries, through its Focal Points, who also communicate with research institutes and other stakeholders. They "assist in the exchange of scientific information and experts, advise on cooperation activities and scientific projects, promote training in risk assessment and raise EFSA's scientific visibility and outreach in Member States."

Members

The following countries' national food safety authorities are members of the EFSA Focal Point network:

Observers

The following countries' national food safety authorities are observers of the EFSA Focal Point network:

Criticism

The EFSA has been criticised for its alleged "overregulation".

Conflicts of interests

The EFSA has been criticised, including by the European Court of Auditors in 2012, for "frequent conflicts of interests", some of them undeclared. A number of undisclosed conflicts of interest involved the International Life Sciences Institute.

According to Corporate Europe Observatory, in 2013, 58% of the experts of the agency were in situation of conflict of interests. In 2017, they were still 46% in situation of conflict of interests.

Bisphenol A

EFSA has also been criticised by the NGO CHEM Trust for misrepresenting the results of their expert committee's report on bisphenol A (BPA) in January 2015. EFSA claimed in the abstract, press release and briefing that bisphenol A 'posed no risk' to health, when the expert report actually stated the risk was 'low' when considering aggregate exposure (beyond just food). EFSA later modified the abstract to correct this error, though the press release remains unchanged. EFSA have argued that use of 'no health concern' in their press release and bisphenol A briefing is to ensure these materials are accessible, though this rationale is disputed by CHEM Trust.