Risk Assessment Strategies for Contaminants in Seafood (RASCS) was built to establish links among seven major research and regulatory institutions in the EU dealing with seafood safety: IPMA (Portugal), Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy), Ghent University (Belgium),
BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Germany), ANSES (France), CREDA, and IRTA (Spain). The purpose was to increase knowledge exchange (KE), to foster harmonization, and improve strategies for risk assessment (RA) and risk communication of contaminants in seafood products. This exchange was ensured by different strategies including online meetings, physical meetings, webinars and trainings on spot at different institutions. A communication strategy within the consortium and with external stakeholders and social media was established. Within the RASCS consortium converged a quite wide spectrum of professional profiles dedicated to contaminants in seafood. To cite a few examples, professional profiles included very technical backgrounds close to complex analytical techniques, environmentalists dedicated to the presence and trends of contaminants in the environment, toxicologists, risk assessors, consumer analysts and communication professionals. Hence, the wholistic RA approaches were described, explained and learned along the execution of the project, and particularly, the novel challenges imposed by social and climate changes. This definitively fulfilled the purpose of EFSA’s partnering grants focusing on KE. With the objective to improve the identification of contaminants present in seafood (hazards), their analysis was conducted at a consortium level, gathering information from the different partners, relative to the physico-chemical characteristics, potential effects, chemical and other methods of analysis and presence of these contaminants in seafood, with major focus on emerging contaminants. Regulations in the EU on specific contaminants were evaluated and recent changes were remarked. Also, particular attention was given to non-regulated compounds such as ciguatoxins, tetrodotoxin or microcystins, due to the major existing gaps at several levels such as metabolization, toxicological profile, validated analytical methods or availability of standards, making difficult their reliable quantification in seafood. Lists of the EU Reference Laboratories on contaminants were set and shared. Regarding monitoring programs in the environment (harvesting and production areas) and in the market (points of sale and distribution) and associated methods, a specific questionnaire on the experimental design and analytical conditions was distributed within the consortium and transferred to competent authorities. The results of this questionnaire are synthetically provided within the final report (https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2023.EN-8419). This was a contribution within Workpackage 2 on the dietary exposure assessment. These results contributed to analyze different monitoring programs responding to current regulations. A second questionnaire was implemented within RASCS, to identify the existing dietary surveys related to seafood products and contaminants. A list of these surveys and most significant data are presented in the final report. Particular attention was given to the critical parameters for the design of efficient dietary surveys and the existing strategies for dietary exposure assessment. With a look into the future, RASCS approached the RA strategies in a changing world considering the evolution of society, particularly on seafood related choices, and also climate change. First, the strategies for RA across the EU considering hazard identification and exposure assessment were studied. Within the frame of this KE project, partners shared their experience regarding the way the RA procedures are usually carried out in the field of seafood potential contamination and safety. Despite the methodologies are similar, during the exchanges and especially during the various trainings on spot, it clearly appeared that among the EU countries participating to the project, the food safety issue is dealt in each country with the intervention of different types and networks of institutions, each with specific roles. The trends of hazards identification and consumer exposure in a changing world according to social changes and climate change were considered. Specific attention was given to combined exposure to contaminants, and the inherent difficulties to study interaction between contaminants. Climate change can affect seafood contamination and the risk of human exposure to toxins and chemical contaminants through the food chain, by either changing the occurrence of toxins/chemical contaminants in the environment or changing the organisms’ physiology and response to the presence of toxins/chemical contaminants. The different drivers of climate change having an impact on different aspects of contamination were assessed. Particular attention was given to toxin producing microalgae whose physiology and distribution may be determined by future climate scenarios. Within the social changes that may affect consumers, a crucial aspect approached by RASCS was the balancing of the risk with the nutritional benefit deriving from fish and seafood intake by means of case studies and predictive tools. Among the many issues approached in this matter, the required holistic perspective that balances risks and nutritional benefits for any food consumption scenario was strengthened.
RASCS also approached more closely the current societal drifts that may have an impact on food safety. The risk/benefit perception by consumers and its impact on seafood consumption and related decision-making was considered. A review on previous projects aiming at the study of consumer attitudes and behaviors were studied. This analysis helps risk assessors and scientists understand the key factors that drive consumer behaviors, enabling future RA to effectively set priorities and address the actual needs and concerns of consumers. A consumer survey, specifically oriented to contaminants in seafood was conducted within RASCS with consumers involving more than 1,800 consumers in Belgium, Poland and Spain. The survey included different information for each specific group on the hazards and benefits of consuming seafood, as well as regulation and the impact of three different messages was evaluated. To mitigate the hypothetical bias which may occur in stated preference valuation (assessment) studies (the case of the hypothetical survey), the survey was complemented with a more modest exercise involving student real food choices according to the different received messages. Also related to consumer choices, RASCS approached the strategies for long-term promotion of seafood consumption with the identification and assessment of current strategies and development of new strategies. The particular focus on communication during food safety crisis was assessed. It is important to state that the conclusions and recommendations found within the final report need to be well framed within the RASCS consortium and its particular composition of professional profiles and expertise. The conclusions and recommendations herein do not intend to cover all contaminants and are not based on an exhaustive and universal vision of contaminants in seafood. This was not the purpose of RASCS. On the contrary, the focus on contaminants has been linked to the present challenges, doubts and interests that derive from the project participants’ day-to-day work, and hence the conclusions and recommendations are oriented to a short-list of compounds that they consider of present and future interest from their own perspective. Some other interesting contaminants are under-represented, and this is not for negligence, nor for lack of interest, nor for considering them not relevant, but only due to the present orientations of the small group of professionals within RASCS. Overall, RASCS has demonstrated to be an extremely valuable opportunity to improve the project partner’s skills within the RA of contaminants in seafood. The activities within RASCS have stressed how important it is for experts to improve their awareness on RA associated knowledge, by listening to other experts, and how important are the synergic efforts of experts from different fields that converge in the same room to discuss on emerging issues on food safety, for which important gaps require action. RASCS has definitively improved the connections among individual partners, strengthening a multidisciplinary network of professionals dedicated to RA of contaminants in seafood. Although some participants in the RASCS consortium had already established collaborations in several international projects and activities, RASCS has allowed to create a “new” network of professionals, increasing a shared vision on the benefits that a multidisciplinary approach can provide to RA. This network has allowed to identify, within institutions that were already known, new experts that have enlarged the vision on RA with their particular expertise and vision of RA. This is leading, beyond RASCS, to favor new experimental work, the writing of new research proposals and scientific publications. It has overall increased the knowledge and expertise on contaminants in seafood across European institutions.
The final report is available at https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2023.EN-8419