2025-11 EFSA: INNOVATION, SPEED, JOINING FORCES

EU Specialty Food Ingredients welcomes the emphasis on “Innovation, Speed, and Joining Forces” as the three key performance pillars highlighted by EFSA Executive Director N. Kriz at this year’s EFSA Stakeholder Forum. Mr. Kriz concluded his remarks to the Forum by stressing the importance of “speed.”

Practical improvements are on their way, such as the promising Architecture Guidance Project. The sooner, the better. It’s especially gratifying for our innovative industry sector that the “practical fixes” proposed a year ago by EU Specialty Food Ingredients are now being seriously considered by EFSA: “Wanted: high-performing EFSA for the safety assessment of specialty food ingredients!” and “Wanted: practical EFSA to assess specialty food ingredients safety in real-world setting.”

While EFSA is engaged in various improvement initiatives—some internally, others in collaboration with stakeholders—it is clear that certain measures, such as the provision of substantive pre-submission scientific advice to applicants, require regulatory changes. Therefore, it is essential that the legislator supports EFSA’s ongoing efforts and that the forthcoming European Commission report to the European Parliament and the Council on EFSA’s performance evaluation meets the expectations of applicants. Recognition of these challenges represents significant progress; the focus must now be on effectively addressing them.