(1)

In May 2004 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the results of a survey concerning the presence of furan in products that undergo heat treatment. Furan levels were found in a variety of foodstuffs (e.g. canned and jarred foodstuffs, baby foods, coffee, soups and sauces, etc.).

(2)

The Scientific Panel on contaminants in the Food Chain of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considered those results an urgent issue and compiled a scientific report on furan in food on 7 December 2004.

(3)

In this report EFSA concluded that from the presently available data it appears that there is a relatively small difference between possible human exposure and doses in experimental animals that produce carcinogenic effects and that a reliable risk assessment would need further data on both toxicity and exposure.

(4)

It is necessary to generate reliable data across the European Community on levels of furan in heat treated foodstuffs in order to enable EFSA to carry out a reliable risk assessment. A special focus should be given on data collection during the years 2007 and 2008. After that, data collection should continue on a routine basis.

(5)

Data should be collected on commercial foodstuffs as purchased disregarding any further preparation (e.g. coffee powder, juices, jars and cans not heated before consumption) and commercial foodstuffs analysed as consumed after further preparation in the laboratory (e.g. brewed coffee, canned and jarred products heated before consumption). In the latter case preparation should follow label instructions, if available. Food prepared at home on basis of fresh ingredients (e.g. vegetable soup made with fresh vegetables, home-made Irish stew) should not be subject to this monitoring programme as the effects of home cooking practices on furan levels in foodstuffs could be better explored in a research project.

(6)

In order to ensure that samples are representative for the sampled lot, the sampling procedures laid down in Part B of the Annex to Commission Regulation (EC) No 333/2007 of 28 March 2007 laying down the methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of the levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, inorganic tin, 3-MCPD and benzo(a)pyrene in foodstuffs (1) should be followed. The analysis of samples should be carried out in accordance with points 1 and 2 of Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (2).

(7)

It is important that the analytical results and specific additional information needed for the evaluation of the results are reported on a regular basis to EFSA. The reporting format should be set out by EFSA. The compilation of the data into a database will be ensured by EFSA,