The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has updated its risk assessment on emerging and novel brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in food, concluding that three substances—TDBPP, DBNPG, and TBNPA—are genotoxic and carcinogenic, while dietary exposure to three others (BEH-TEBP, EH-TBB, DBDPE) does not raise a health concern. Published on 27 July 2026, the scientific opinion by EFSA's Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) covers 27 BFRs, expanding on the 2012 assessment. The European Commission requested the update to address new scientific data and occurrence information. The opinion, adopted on 18 June 2026, underwent a targeted consultation from 28 April to 18 May 2026. The CONTAM Panel identified reference points for six BFRs but could not derive health-based guidance values for any due to data gaps. For 11 BFRs, very limited or no hazard or exposure data were available. The Panel recommended collecting biomonitoring data, occurrence data in food, genotoxicity information, and toxicological studies to support future risk characterization. The assessment is part of a series updating EFSA's 2010–2012 risk assessments on BFR families, with a future opinion evaluating a mixture approach.
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