Safety assessments are used to evaluate the presence and levels of chemicals in food and feed. Traditionally, this has relied on evidence from animal testing. However, a new way to test for chemicals and food safety has arrived, prompting questions on whether the food industry can reduce or stop animal testing entirely.
Now, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched TKPlate, a new platform that proposes food safety testing without using animals. This method models and predicts chemical toxicity and its impact on humans and animals, aiming to reduce the need for animal testing while providing more representative information. TKPlate is an example of efforts to promote the 3Rs of animal testing: Replace, reduce and refine.
The platform has many other potential benefits. For example, TKPlate enables assessors to produce a preliminary evaluation in minutes, in contrast to the 90 days required for standard toxicity tests on animals. It can also produce results for groups of chemicals, such as ‘mixtures’, which otherwise require many animals and are difficult to do in an experiment.
Years of research and development have led to the introduction of TKPlate. The idea for TKPlate started in 2014 with a scientific report on alternative methods to animal testing that EFSA’s experts could use. The report proposed the development of a series of TK and TD models, leading to the development of a series of complex models over many years.