The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published OpenFoodTox 3.0, the third edition of its food chemical hazard database. The database facilitates the reuse of EFSA data for scientific and regulatory purposes.
Drawing from EFSA risk assessments, OpenFoodTox provides structured summaries of hazard information for individual substances, including:
- Substance characterization and identifiers
- Human health, animal health, and ecotoxicological hazard assessments
- Toxicological reference values and reference points
- Physicochemical properties
- Toxicokinetic and absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) data
- Environmental fate and behavior data.
The database covers substances assessed across EFSA’s remit, including food additives and flavorings, pesticides, contaminants, food contact materials, feed additives, and nutrients. EFSA has produced risk assessments for thousands of substances through scientific opinions, conclusions, statements, and technical reports.
OpenFoodTox 3.0 currently contains:
- 7,880 distinct substances, including constituents and metabolites
- 45,682 study results across human health, animal health, and environmental endpoints
- 19,452 toxicological reference values used in EFSA risk assessments.
New updates in OpenFoodTox 3.0 include the full migration of OpenFoodTox 2.0 into the International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID 6), enabling standardized data collection, reporting, and interoperability of chemical hazard information. New endpoint areas have also been introduced, including environmental fate and behavior, alongside expanded physicochemical and toxicokinetic datasets.
Additionally, OpenFoodTox 3.0 supports the development of new approach methodologies (NAMs), and several in silico models derived from OpenFoodTox data have already been developed and published, with further integration within modeling and read‑across platforms ongoing.