Chemical Hazards Database (OpenFoodTox)
When evaluating the safety of chemicals, scientists determine if and how they may be hazardous for humans, animals and/or the environment. They seek to identify critical health effects for these populations, the amount of the substance likely to trigger the effects, and then where possible establish a safe level.
Since its creation in 2002, EFSA has produced risk assessments for more than 5,700 substances in over 2,400 scientific opinions, statements and conclusions through the work of its scientists. For individual substances, a summary of human health and – depending on the relevant legislation and intended uses – animal health and ecological hazard assessments has been collected and structured into EFSA’s chemical hazards database: OpenFoodTox 2.0.
OpenFoodTox provides open-source data for the substance characterisation, the links to EFSA’s related outputs, background European legislation, and a summary of the critical toxicological endpoints and reference values.
What’s new? The 2023 upgrade to OpenFoodTox 2.0 now contains physicochemical properties and pharmacokinetic/toxicokinetic data for more than 850 substances.
OpenFoodTox is a tool and source of information for scientific advisory bodies and stakeholders with an interest in chemical risk assessment. You can download summary data sheets for each individual substance in pdf or xlsx format by opening this dashboard link:
Alternatively, you can download in xlsx format the full dataset or individual spreadsheets providing for all compounds: a) substance characterisation, b) EFSA outputs, c) reference points, d) reference values, e) genotoxicity, f) physicochemical properties, and g) pharmacokinetic/toxicokinetic data by opening the following link:
Legal notice
Openfoodtox is a compilation of chemical and toxicological information on chemicals assessed by EFSA since its creation and included in already published scientific opinions. The database represents the data that was available to EFSA at the time of assessment and does not provide any reassurance on whether any of the chemicals are suitable or not for food applications in Europe. EFSA owns this database and its content. Openfoodtox is part of the EFSA Data Warehouse (DWH) launched by EFSA to improve public access to data. It follows that rules for accessing data in the DWH are also applicable to Openfoodtox. This database does not disclose any commercially sensitive or otherwise confidential information. Reference to the original scientific output should be provided in case of re-use for legal or regulatory purposes within or outside the European Union.
EFSA will update Openfoodtox on a regular basis. EFSA does not warrant that the use of this database is error free. In case of discrepancy between the data provided in the original scientific output and that in this database, preference shall be given to the former. Comments from users, should be written to IDATA [at] efsa.europa.eu (IDATA[at]efsa[dot]europa[dot]eu).