The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced a reduction in the safe level of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in consumers' diets based on new scientific evidence.
The advisory body cut the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) from 0.05 mg/kg bodyweight/day to 0.014 mg/kg bodyweight/day — a 3.5-fold reduction.
A new acute reference dose of 0.07 mg/kg bw was also set for the first time.
TFA is an ultra-short-chain PFAS — a persistent environmental contaminant that breaks down from certain PFAS, industrial gases and plant protection products.
It can end up in groundwater, soil and food crops, making it relevant to companies that source botanicals, water-based ingredients, or crop-derived actives.
The previous consumer health-based guidance values were set in 2017 during the peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of the active substance flurtamone, basing the ADI of 0.05 mg/kg/day on a 90-day rat study.
For this new revision, EFSA said it reviewed roughly 170 studies using a weight-of-evidence approach and benchmark dose modelling.
While TFA and its sodium salt were judged unlikely to be genotoxic, new animal studies flagged developmental, reproductive and thyroid hormone effects, with decreased thyroxine (T4) as the most sensitive endpoint driving the new, stricter ADI.
The advisory body used the standard 100-fold safety factor for animal-to-human extrapolation and population variability, plus an extra five-fold factor for remaining data gaps.
What happens next?
The European Commission and Member States will now use the new values to consider possible consumer-protection measures.
EFSA said that it and ECHA are continuing joint work on how PFAS pesticides break down into TFA and behave in soil and water, with results expected by summer 2027.
Separately, ECHA has floated classifying TFA as a reproductive toxicant, which could support a ban on sale/use by the general public.
For nutraceutical and supplement formulators, the news poses questions around "clean label" and PFAS-free claims. TFA is a background contaminant showing up broadly in water and produce; thus, it touches supplement raw-material sourcing (herbal extracts, water-based actives).
Lower ADIs could potentially feed into future scrutiny of label claims.
