Update of the safety assessment of N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)alkyl(C8-C18)amines (FCM No 19) and N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)alkyl(C8-C18)amine hydrochlorides (FCM No 20) for their use in plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food.

The European Commission asked EFSA to review whether the authorisation of N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)alkyl(C8-C18)amine (FCM No 19) and N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)alkyl(C8-C18)amine hydrochlorides (FCM No 20) is still in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, as provided for in Article 12(3). The FCM Panel concluded that some uses of the substance N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)alkyl(C8-C18)amine (FCM No 19) are not in accordance with this Regulation, since the migration is likely to exceed the current SML(T) of 1.2 mg/kg food under certain conditions of use.

Safety assessment of the process NGR LSP used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials.

The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials (FCM) assessed the safety of the recycling process NGR LSP (EU register number RECYC328). The input is hot washed and dried poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) flakes mainly originating from collected post-consumer PET containers, with no more than 5% PET from non-food consumer applications. The flakes are dried (step 2), melted in an extruder (step 3) and decontaminated during a melt-state polycondensation step under high temperature and vacuum (step 4).

Safety assessment of the substance 2,2'-oxydiethylamine for use in plastic food contact materials.

The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials assessed the safety of 2,2'-oxydiethylamine, which is intended to be used at up to 14% w/w as a monomer along with adipic acid and caprolactam to make polyamide thin films intended for single use, in contact with all types of food under all conditions of time and temperature. Specific migration of 2,2'-oxydiethylamine was tested from a polyamide film in water and was below the limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.015 mg/kg.

NovoLign: metaproteomics by sequence alignment.

Tremendous advances in mass spectrometric and bioinformatic approaches have expanded proteomics into the field of microbial ecology. The commonly used spectral annotation method for metaproteomics data relies on database searching, which requires sample-specific databases obtained from whole metagenome sequencing experiments. However, creating these databases is complex, time-consuming, and prone to errors, potentially biasing experimental outcomes and conclusions.