OpenFoodTox 3.0: EFSA's chemical hazards database

OpenFoodTox 3.0: EFSA's chemical hazards database | Zenodo Skip to main Communities My dashboard Log in Sign up Zenodo is currently experiencing slowness and intermittent outages due to heavy automated traffic from bots and AI crawlers. We are aware of the problem, and our team is focused on stabilizing the service. Thank you for your patience. Knowledge Junction Published April 30, 2026 | Version v7 Dataset Open OpenFoodTox 3.0: EFSA's chemical hazards database Authors/Creators European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) 1 Carnesecchi, Edoardo 2 Levorato, Sara 1 Iovine, Nadia 3 Ciacci, Andrea 4 Roncaglioni, Alessandra 5 Sartori, Luca 4 Benfenati, Emilio 5 Dorne, Jean Lou C.M. 2 Valerio, Mariacristina 4 et al. Show all 14 authors Authors/Creators 14 / 14 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) 1 Carnesecchi, Edoardo 2 Levorato, Sara 1 Iovine, Nadia 3 Ciacci, Andrea 4 Roncaglioni, Alessandra 5 Sartori, Luca 4 Benfenati, Emilio 5 Dorne, Jean Lou C.M. 2 Valerio, Mariacristina 4 Hobocienski, Bryan 6 Marusczyk, Jörg 6 Sacher, Oliver 6 Schwab, Christof H. 6 1. European Food Safety Authority 2.

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) 3. Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research 4.

S-IN, Soluzioni Informatiche srl 5.

Instituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri (IRCCS) 6.

Molecular Networks GmbH Close Description EFSA's Chemical Hazards Database: OpenFoodTox When evaluating the safety of chemicals, EFSA scientists determine whether and how substances may be hazardous for humans, animals and/or the environment. This includes identifying critical health effects, the levels at which these effects may occur to derive a reference point 1 as the basis for a reference value 2 , and, when possible, establishing health‑based guidance values 3 or other reference values. EFSA’s Chemical Hazards Database – OpenFoodTox – provides structured summaries of hazard information for individual substances drawn from EFSA’s risk assessments. The database covers substances assessed across EFSA’s remit, including food additives and flavourings, pesticides, contaminants, food contact materials, feed additives and nutrients. Since its creation in 2002, the European Food safety Authority (EFSA) has produced risk assessments for more than 7,800 unique substances in over 2,650 Scientific Opinions , Statements and Conclusions through the work of its Scientific Panels , Units and Scientific Committee. OpenFoodTox provides open access to structured hazard data supporting these assessments, including: Substance characterisation and identifiers Human health, animal health and ecotoxicological hazard assessments Toxicological reference values and reference points Physicochemical properties Toxicokinetic and ADME data Environmental fate and behaviour data The database supports transparency and facilitates reuse of EFSA data for scientific and regulatory purposes. It can be used by risk managers, risk assessors at scientific advisory bodies, other scientistis and researchers, or anyone with an interest in chemical risk assessment. What's new? OpenFoodTox (OFT) 3.0 OpenFoodTox 3.0 represents the latest evolution of the database and is built on the full migration of OpenFoodTox 2.0 into the International Uniform Chemical Information Database ( IUCLID 6 ). Released in April 2026, the updated database is structured in line with OECD Harmonised Templates ( OHTs ) enabling standardised data collection, reporting and interoperability of chemical hazard information. This alignment underpins EFSA’s contribution to the EU Common Data Platform on Chemicals, supporting data sharing, reuse and integration across EU agencies in line with the “ One substance, One assessment ” approach. The migration to IUCLID also supports consistent dossier creation and updating, linking substances to EFSA outputs in a transparent and reproducible manner. OpenFoodTox 3.0 database currently contains: 7,880 distinct substances, including constituents and metabolites 45,682 study results across human health, animal health and environmental endpoints 19,452 toxicological reference values used in EFSA risk assessments. OpenFoodTox 3.0 database is available through: IUCLID 6 (i6z) dossiers archives (.zip file) OFT3.0 export repository (.xlsx file) The External Scientific Report describing the work done is available at 10.2903/sp.efsa.2026.EN-10099 This version replaces version 6 to include EFSA Opinions, Statements and Conclusions up to December 2025. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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@efsa.europa.eu . Definitions 1 Reference Point: defined point on an experimental dose–response relationship for the critical effect. This term is synonymous to Point of departure (USA). Reference points include the lowest or no observed adverse effect level (LOAEL/NOAEL) or benchmark dose lower confidence limit (BDML), used to derive a reference value or Margin of Exposure in human and animal health risk assessment. In the ecological area, these include lethal dose (LD50), effect concentration (EC5/ECx), no (adverse) effect concentration/dose (NOEC/NOAEC/NOAED), no (adverse) effect level (NEL/NOAEL), hazard concentration (HC5/HCx) derived from a Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSD) for the ecosystem (EFSA Scientific Committee,2018). 2 Reference Value: the estimated maximum dose (on a body mass basis) or the concentration of an agent to which an individual may be exposed over a specified period without appreciable risk. Reference values are established by applying an uncertainty factor to the reference point. Examples of reference values in human health include acceptable daily intake (ADI) for food and feed additives, and pesticides, tolerable upper intake levels (UL) for vitamins and minerals, and tolerable daily intake (TDI) for contaminants and food contact materials. For acute effects and operators, the acute reference dose (ARfD) and the acceptable operator exposure level (AOEL). In animal health and the ecological area, these include safe feed concentrations and the Predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) respectively (EFSA Scientific Committee, 2018). 3 Guidance on safe consumption of substances that takes into account current safety data, uncertainties in these data, and the likely duration of consumption. Notes EU; XLSX; IUCLID 6; OHTs; data.collection@efsa.europa.eu Files IUCLID 6 (i6z) dossiers archives.zip Files (1.1 GB) Name Size IUCLID 6 (i6z) dossiers archives.zip md5:8811baa5267e68dffa2258c2664c80ae 1.1 GB Preview Download OFT3.0 export repository.xlsx md5:445fc05a6a421634df822d14131a7d83 22.6 MB Download Additional details Related works Is cited by http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/microstrategy/openfoodtox (URL) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2020.EN-1822 (DOI) 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106293 (DOI) 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139243 (DOI) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2021.EN-6476 (DOI) 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106293 (DOI) 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135302 (DOI) 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.110067 (DOI) References http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2002/178/oj (URL) 10.2805/419620 (DOI) 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.e15011 (DOI) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2014.EN-654 (DOI) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2013.EN-458 (DOI) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2017.EN-1206 (DOI) 10.1016/j.etap.2017.05.011 (DOI) 10.1016/j.fct.2017.03.060 (DOI) http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1223/oj (URL) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1265 (DOI) 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.09.092 (DOI) 10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1438 (DOI) References EC, 2002. Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety. OJ L 31, 1.2.2002, p. 1–24. EFSA Strategy 2020, Trusted science for safe food: Protecting consumers' health with independent scientific advice on the food chain, EFSA 2016, doi: 10.2805/397609 Dorne JL, Richardson J, Kass G, Georgiadis N, Monguidi M, Pasinato L, Cappe S, Verhagen H and Robinson T, 2017. Editorial: OpenFoodTox: EFSA's open source toxicological database on chemical hazards in food and feed. EFSA Journal 2017;15(1):e15011, 3 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.e15011 Dorne JLCM, Richardson J, Livaniou A, Carnesecchi E, Ceriani L, Baldin R, Kovarich S, Pavan M, Saouter E, Biganzoli F, Pasinato L, Zare Jeddi M, Robinson TP, Kass GEN, Liem AKD, Toropov AA, Toropova AP, Yang C, Tarkhov A, Georgiadis N, Di Nicola MR, Mostrag A, Verhagen H, Roncaglioni A, Benfenati E, Bassan A. EFSA's OpenFoodTox: An open source toxicological database on chemicals in food and feed and its future developments. Environ Int. 2021 Jan;146:106293. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106293. S-IN Soluzioni-Informatiche; Report on "Data collection and data entry for EFSA's chemical hazards database NP/EFSA/EMRISK/2011/01". Supporting Publications 2013:EN-458. 140 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2013.EN-458 S-IN, Soluzioni Informatiche, 2014. Further development and update of EFSA's Chemical Hazards Database NP/EFSA/EMRISK/2012/01. EFSA supporting publication 2014:EN-654, 103 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2014.EN-654 S-IN Soluzioni Informatiche, 2018a. Update and maintenance of the EFSA's Chemical Hazards Database. EFSA supporting publication 2018:EN-1265. 72 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1265 S-IN Soluzioni Informatiche, 2018b. Update and maintenance of the EFSA's Chemical Hazards Database. EFSA supporting publication 2018:EN-1438. 60 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1438 Carnesecchi E., Toma C., Roncaglioni A., Kramer N., Benfenati E., & Dorne, J. L. C. (2020). Integrating QSAR models predicting acute contact toxicity and mode of action profiling in honey bees (A. mellifera): data curation using open source databases, performance testing and validation. Science of The Total Environment, 735, 139243. Como F, Carnesecchi E, Volani S, Dorne JL, Richardson J, Bassan A, M. Pavan M, Benfenati E, 2017. Predicting acute contact toxicity of pesticides in honeybees (Apis mellifera) through a k-nearest neighbor model. Chemosphere 166 (2017) 438e444 Benfenati E, Como F, Marzo M, Gadaleta D, Toropov A and Toropova A, 2017. Developing innovative in silico models with EFSA's OpenFoodTox database. EFSA supporting publication 2017:EN-1206. 19 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2017.EN-1206 Toropov AA, Toropova AP, Marzo M, Dorne JL, Georgiadis N, Benfenati E, 2017.QSAR models for predicting acute toxicity of pesticides in rainbow trout using the CORAL software and EFSA's OpenFoodTox database. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 53:158-163 Toropova AP, Toropov AA, Marzo M, Escher SE, Dorne JL, Georgiadis N, Benfenati E, 2018. The application of new HARD-descriptor available from the CORAL software to building up NOAEL models. Food Chem Toxicol.112:544-550 Hartung T., Bremer S., Casati S., Coecke S., Corvi R., Fortaner S., Gribaldo L., Halder M., Hoffmann S., Roi A.J., Prieto P., Sabbioni E., Scott L., Worth A., Zuang V. (2004). A modular approach to the ECVAM principles on test validity. Altern. Lab. Anim. 32, 467-472 OECD. (2005). Guidance Document on the Validation and International Acceptance of New or Updated Test Methods for Hazard Assessment, Series on Testing and Assessment, No. 34. , Paris Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products. OJ L 342, 22.12.2009, p. 59–209. EFSA Scientific Committee, Hardy A, Benford D, Halldorsson T, Jeger MJ, Knutsen HK, More S, Naegeli H, Noteborn H, Ockleford C, Ricci A, Rychen G, Schlatter JR, Silano V, Solecki R, Turck D, Younes M, Benfenati E, Castle L, Hougaard Bennekou S, Laskowski R, Leblanc JC, Kortenkamp A, Ragas A, Posthuma L, Svendsen C, Testai E, Tarazona J, Dujardin B, Kass GEN, Manini P, Dorne JL and Hogstrand C, 2018. Draft guidance on harmonised methodologies for human health, animal health and ecological risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals. Public Consultation (26 June 2018). Available online: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/consultation/consultation/180626-1-ax1.pdf WHO/IPCS (World Health Organization/International Programme on Chemical Safety), 2009. Principles and methods for the risk assessment of chemicals in food, Environmental Health Criteria 240, ISBN: 978 92 4 157240 8 Available online: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/chemical-food/en/ Subjects toxicology http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C1357 contaminants http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C6158 data collection http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C2724 substances http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C1723 food additives http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C1963 processing aids http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C29332 feed additives http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C2116 pesticides http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C284 nutrients http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C1199 risk assessment http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C1470 toxicity testing http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C5151 alternative methods http://id.agrisemantics.org/gacs/C21424 80K Views 51K Downloads Show more details All versions This version Views Total views 79,903 4,395 Downloads Total downloads 51,210 2,407 Data volume Total data volume 1.8 TB 886.4 GB More info on how stats are collected.... Versions External resources Indexed in OpenAIRE Communities Keywords and subjects Keywords contaminants critical study data collection data model feed additives food additives food contact materials nutrient sources pesticides processing aids safety assessment substance toxicology hazard characterisation human health animal health acute toxicity sub-chronic toxicity chronic toxicity reference point reference value genotoxicity regulated products ecotoxicity hazard identification novel foods vitamins minerals environmental standards health-based guidance value acceptable daily intake tolerable daily intake threshold of toxicological concern flavourings rat mice dog bees rabbit fish daphnia chiromonius farm animals companion animals algae earth worm Details DOI DOI Badge DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19388272 Markdown [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388272) reStructuredText .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19388272.svg :target: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388272 HTML <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388272"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19388272.svg" alt="DOI"></a> Image URL https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19388272.svg Target URL https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388272 Resource type Dataset Publisher Zenodo Languages English Rights License Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives 4.0 International No further description. 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