The EU food authority recommends limiting cereulide in infant foods

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recommended this Monday to set limits on the presence of cereulide in infant foods, following the withdrawal of batches of products after the detection of this toxin in countries of the European Union (EU), including Spain. EFSA, a scientific body based in Parma, Italy, has published an analysis of the risks of cereulide, responding to an urgent request from the European Commission (EC) in the face of a succession of alerts in EU countries due to the toxin, produced by the bacterium "Bacillus cereus". The objective of the report is to help legislators and crisis managers in the EU, as well as the industry, to know when products should be withdrawn from the market as a precautionary measure due to the presence of cereulide. The EFSA's opinion establishes an "acute reference dose" of cereulide for children at 0.014 micrograms per kilo of body weight; scientists have taken vomiting as the acute adverse effect to establish this reference. ...