News

For the Fête de la Mer ("Sea Days Celebration"), ANSES and the Nord-Pas de Calais regional council signed a memorandum of cooperation on 10 July 2015 before the Mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, also a member of the French Parliament. The aim of this memorandum is to pool resources to develop research in the field of food safety and seafood quality in the Nord-Pas de Calais region.

On 3 June, ANSES was appointed reference laboratory of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for foot and mouth disease, a major disease that, due to the direct losses it can engender, requires increased vigilance by health authorities. OIE reference laboratories are appointed to monitor the full range of scientific and technical issues surrounding a specific illness or topic. This 17th international reference mandate is recognition of the quality of the Agency's work and its commitment to animal health.

At the request of the Minister of social affairs and health, Professor Serge Hercberg submitted a report in January 2014 that recommends France-wide implementation of a nutritional information programme based on the Rayner's score system developed for the UK's Food Standards Agency. This information programme aims to provide consumers with information that will enable them to choose between food products based on their nutritional qualities. ANSES was asked by the Directorate General for Health (DGS) to assess the technical feasibility of deploying the proposed tool. In the report published today, ANSES concludes that implementation of the nutritional score, as defined by Rayner et al. (2005), appears to be technically feasible but would require supplementary data in addition to the data whose labelling will become mandatory in 2016 under the EU regulatory framework. ANSES also indicates that while the nutritional score seems able to effectively compare a large number of food groups, it does not do so sufficiently for certain other groups (non-alcoholic soft drinks, fats, cheeses, fruit purées, chocolates and chocolate-based products, etc.). Lastly, the Agency emphasises that its work did not aim to evaluate the relevance of using this tool for nutritional labelling, nor its capacity to inform the consumer, to induce changes in behaviour or in the food offer, or its overall relevance with regard to public health.

In a sustainable development context which aims to preserve water resources and save water in general, the recycling of greywater is a topic that often comes up. The recycling of treated greywater, which involves the collection, treatment and reuse of water from showers, bathtubs, bathroom sinks, washing machines, and sometimes kitchens, is not authorised in France for domestic purposes. In 2011, the Directorate General for Health asked ANSES to assess the potential health risks linked to the recycling of greywater in a domestic context. In the opinion and report that it published today, the Agency considers that the practice of recycling greywater in the home must be regulated, and that it must only be considered for strictly limited uses in geographical environments that are durably and repeatedly subject to water shortages. Individuals (building residents, occasional users, workers) must also be informed and trained in the required conditions of use in order to minimize the risks of non-potable water on the premises.