Legal notice

The information on the EFSA website is subject to the following:

  • a disclaimer;
  • a linking policy;
  • a copyright notice;
  • a statement on confidential information.

Disclaimer

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) maintains this website to enhance public access to information about its activities and initiatives. Our goal is to keep this information timely and accurate. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them as soon as possible.

EFSA accepts no responsibility or liability (including, but not limited to, any direct or consequential loss or damage that might occur to you and/or any other third party) arising out of, or in connection with the information on this site, including information relating to the documents it publishes. EFSA cannot be held liable for errors, inaccuracies or inconsistencies with regard to texts available on its website being different from the scientific and administrative documents officially adopted, issued or endorsed by its responsible governance bodies. In case of disagreement between the adopted text and the document made publicly available on EFSA’s website, the adopted text will always prevail.

Information on the EFSA website:

  • reflects the information and state of knowledge available on the date it was adopted or endorsed;
  • is not necessarily comprehensive, complete, accurate or up to date;
  • is not to be interpreted as professional or legal advice (if you need specific advice, you should always consult a suitably qualified professional).

It is our goal to minimise disruption caused by technical errors. However, some data or information on our website may have been created or structured in files or formats that are not error-free, and we cannot guarantee that our service will not be interrupted or otherwise affected by such problems.

EFSA accepts no responsibility with regard to such problems incurred as a result of using this site or any linked external sites.

This disclaimer is not intended to limit EFSA’s liability in contravention of any requirements laid down in applicable national law nor to exclude its liability for matters which may not be excluded under such law.

Linking policy

EFSA encourages organisations and individuals to create links to its website. Linking should not:

  • be used in a defamatory context;
  • be displayed in a manner which suggests that EFSA endorses any commercial product or service, scientific or administrative output, or the information or text in the context of which it is published;
  • confuse users of the other website as to the source of the content. EFSA should be fully acknowledged as a source or author of the relevant documents;
  • be displayed alongside advertising.

Some EFSA pages link to other websites maintained by external parties, over which EFSA has no control and for which EFSA is not responsible. Linking to another website should not be taken as an endorsement by EFSA. Users clicking and visiting another site are subject to the policies applicable to the new site.

Copyright © for the entire content of this website unless otherwise stated: European Food Safety Authority – EFSA. Re-use is authorised, provided that EFSA is acknowledged as the source of the material.

For individual documents, the general principle of re-use outlined above may be subject to specific conditions as indicated in individual copyright notices contained therein. Users are advised to refer to these individual copyright notices.

The EFSA logo is the exclusive property of the European Food Safety Authority – EFSA and is registered under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property. Its use is prohibited without the prior written permission of EFSA.

Statement on confidential information

In accordance with its founding legislation, Regulation 178/2002 (“the General Food Law”), as amended by the implementation of Regulation (EC) 1381/2019 (“the Transparency Regulation”) on 27.03.2021, EFSA shall carry out its activities in the area of food law with a high level of transparency. This entails that for all mandates and applications received by the Authority on/after 27.03.2021, to which the Transparency Regulation applies, EFSA shall make publicly available on its website information listed in Article 38(1) of the General Food Law or applicable Union law unless it is considered confidential pursuant to Articles 39-39e of the General Food Law or applicable Union law.

In accordance with Article 39(2) of the General Food Law, upon the request of an applicant confidential treatment may be given to items of information where the disclosure is demonstrated by the applicant to potentially harm its interests to a significant degree. Confidentiality requests may be submitted only with respect to items of information expressly set out in the closed positive list contained in Article 39(2)(a) to (d) and Article 39(3) of the General Food law as listed in the Appendix of EFSA’s Practical Arrangements of transparency and confidentiality (“EFSA’s Practical Arrangements”). The provisions of Article 39(2)(a) to (d) and of Article 39(3) are without prejudice to the provisions contained in Article 39(4)(a) and Article 39(4)(b) which relate to the disclosure of information where urgent action is essential to protect human health, animal health or the environment, such as in emergency situations, or to information which forms part of conclusions of scientific outputs, including scientific opinions, delivered by the Authority and which relate to foreseeable effects on human health, animal health or the environment.

Pursuant to Article 38(1a), the disclosure of a) scientific data, studies and other information supporting applications, including supplementary information supplied by applicants as well as other scientific data and information supporting requests from the European Parliament, the Commission and the Member States for a scientific output, including a scientific opinion, b) information on which scientific outputs of the Authority, including scientific opinions, are based is without prejudice to without prejudice to:

  1. existing rules concerning intellectual property rights which set out limitations on certain uses of the disclosed documents or their content.
  2. provisions protecting the investment made by innovators in gathering the information and data supporting relevant applications for authorisations (“data exclusivity rules”).

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Legal Notice, and subject to other binding limitations provided for under applicable law, the information, documents and data made available on the website of the Authority, may be downloaded and printed, totally or in part, provided that the user acknowledges the applicable conditions and, in particular, that EFSA accepts no responsibility and/or liability for any use made of the information, documents or data.

In relation to mandates and applications received by the Authority prior to 27.03.2021 the transparency and confidentiality provisions contained in Article 38 and Article 39(1) of the General Food Law in its pre Transparency Regulation version continue to apply.

The reproduction, distribution or further use of information, documents and data posted or otherwise made available on EFSA’s website, the  OpenEFSA portal or on websites linked to EFSA may be subject to protection under intellectual property rights regulations or other applicable law, and their utilisation without obtaining the prior permission from the right(s)holders(s) of the respective information, documents and data might violate the rights of the respective right(s)holder(s).