Outcome of thepublic consultation on a draft protocolfor the assessment of hazard identification and characterisation of sweeteners

This technical report presents the outcome of the public consultationona draft protocol for the hazard identification and characterisation of sweeteners.It includes an overview of the comments received and the general responsesfrom EFSA. The protocol was developed by the EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Flavourings (FAF Panel), supported by the working group on the re‐evaluation of sweeteners, and will be implemented in order to draft the scientific opinions on the re‐evaluations of sweetenersapproved in the EU as of 20 January 2009 and to be re‐evaluated under Regulation (EC) No 257/2010. The protocol applies to hazard identification and hazard characterisation. Exposure will be assessed following a separate protocol. The online public consultation was available, after the endorsement of the draft protocol, for the period from 5 July 2019 to 19 September 2019. There were 23 comments received, submitted by six different parties. The full list of comments received and how these have been addressed by EFSA can be found in Appendix A.