Fisheries/Contaminants: EFSA publishes assessment on dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in Europe
18 JUNE 2026The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its update Update of the risk assessment on dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in feed and food.
According to the updated assessment, the dietary exposure of the European population exceeds the new tolerable weekly intake (YWI) in all age groups, with the highest exceedances seen in toddlers and children. The assessment also identifies a concern for women of childbearing age, due to potential effects on future male offspring exposed via the mother.
92% of the samples covered foods of animal origin such as Meat and meat products, Fish and seafood, Milk and dairy products and Eggs and egg products while only a limited number of samples was available for other food categories.
EFSA recommends strengthening the evidence and monitoring to support future risk assessments, in particular by:
- developing more human-relevant toxic equivalency factors (TEFs);
- further improving toxicokinetic models for humans;
- collecting more data on contamination levels in plant-based foods;
- gathering additional data on the presence of these substances in human milk and blood, from a broader range of European countries.
Please find the risk assessment and an associated press release below:
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10103
Contact João Pereira at jpereira@frucom.eu.