Working practices

The workflow for EFSA’s scientific outputs runs from the moment EFSA receives a request for scientific advice or initiates its own activity to the moment it publishes its findings. There are three main stages: EFSA receives requests for scientific advice mainly from the European Commission, but also from the European Parliament or Member States. The request outlines what is being asked of EFSA: the issue, the terms of reference, the timeframe and so on. The mandate is then assigned to one of EFSA’s Scientific Panels or its Scientific Committee and made available on the OpenEFSA portal . EFSA usually sets up a Working Group of experts to carry out the risk assessment A specialised field of applied science that involves reviewing scientific data and studies in order to evaluate risks associated with certain hazards. It involves four steps: hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment and risk characterisation . We often hold public consultations on draft outputs and then consider the comments in the revised document. The output – which is usually a Scientific Opinion Opinions include risk assessments on general scientific issues, evaluations of an application for the authorisation of a product, substance or claim, or an evaluation of a risk assessment , but may be a Statement, Guidance Document or another type of output – is then published on the EFSA website in the EFSA Journal , our open-access, online scientific journal.