In recent years, rapid freezers have been used to freeze and preserve seafood, with advances in freezing technology. However, limited studies have examined the effect of rapid freezing on the viability of Anisakis larvae in fish muscle. In this study, freezing experiments were conducted on Anisakis larvae alone (bare group) and on larvae embedded in mackerel fish (embedded group) using an air-blast freezer (rapid freezing) as the most popular rapid-freezing method, passing through the zone of maximum ice crystal formation within 30 min, and a natural convection freezer (conventional freezing) set at −20 °C. In the bare group experiments, all larvae died after 8 min of rapid freezing and after more than 2 h of conventional freezing. In the rapid-freezing experiments on the embedded group, only a few larvae were alive when the core temperature of the fish reached −20 °C, whereas all larvae died when the core temperature reached −35 °C. With conventional freezing, only a few larvae were alive for 24 h after freezing at −20 °C. In contrast, all larvae died after freezing at −20 °C for 24 h after the fish core temperature reached −20 °C under both rapid and conventional freezing conditions. In the embedded group, the standard deviation of the time taken for the fish core temperature to reach −20 °C was <15 min for rapid freezing and 171 min for conventional freezing. The results showed that the time taken for the core temperature to reach −20 °C varies by several hours in conventional freezing, depending on the fish size. Thus, the most crucial freezing conditions to avoid anisakiasis are either rapidly freezing the fish to a core temperature of −35 °C or keeping the fish core temperature at −20 °C for at least 24 h.

In September 2021, the Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) revised its 2010 guidelines for the risk assessment of food additives. The revised guidelines, titled Guidelines for the Risk Assessment of Food Additives, incorporate updated international trends in toxicity testing and reflect the experience gained from prior assessments. The revised guidelines are composed of the following 4 chapters: Chapter 1. General Provisions; Chapter 2. Detailed Exposition; Chapter 3. Approach for the risk assessment of processing aids; and Chapter 4. Approach for the risk assessment of additives in foods used as breast milk substitutes for infants under four months old. A central feature of the revised guidelines is the organization of risk assessment into four distinct steps: hazard identification, hazard characterization (toxicological assessment), exposure assessment, and risk characterization. These steps, based on the Codex Alimentarius principles, ensure a thorough and systematic evaluation of food additives. The guidelines also introduce the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) approach for processing aids and guideline for assessing the additives used as breast milk substitutes for infants under four months old, considering their specific characteristics. This paper provides an overview of these key updates, and offer a structured approach to enhance transparency and consistency risk assessment practices for food additives in Japan.

Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) conducted a risk assessment of ferimzone (CAS No. 89269-64-7), a pyrimidine hydrazone fungicide, based on submitted documents. A request for reevaluation was made under the Agricultural Chemical Regulation Act. Additional information was submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which included data on residues in crops (paddy rice) and in livestock products (cattle and chickens), fate in livestock (goats and chickens), and also related published scientific literatures. Major adverse effects of ferimzone were observed in the liver (including centrilobular hypertrophy of hepatocytes) and blood (anemia). Adverse effects were observed on neither fertility, teratogenicity, nor genotoxicity. The lowest no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) obtained from these studies was 1.94 mg/kg bw per day in the two-year combined chronic toxicity/carcinogenicity study in rats. FSCJ specified an acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 0.019 mg/kg bw per day by applying a safety factor of 100 to this NOAEL. The lowest value was a NOAEL of 30 mg/kg bw per day in the general pharmacological study in mice and rats, as well as the one-year chronic toxicity study in dogs. FSCJ specified an acute reference dose (ARfD) of 0.3 mg/kg bw by applying a safety factor of 100 to this NOAEL.

Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) conducted a self-tasking risk assessment of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food. Scientific findings and risk evaluation data regarding PFAS, of international organizations, government agencies in other countries, etc., were reviewed in the current risk assessment. The scientific literature related to three major compounds of PFAS, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), was surveyed and served for the discussion. Reference doses were derived from two animal experiments* described below. To determine the reference dose, dose estimation models developed by overseas evaluation institutions were adopted for conversion of POD (point of departure) in animal experiments to POD_HED (Human Equivalent Dose). Based on the discussions and estimation, the tolerable daily intake (TDI) was appropriately set as 20 ng/kg body weight/day (2×10⁻⁵ mg/kg body weight/day) for PFOS and as 20 ng/kg body weight/day (2×10⁻⁵ mg/kg body weight/day) for PFOA. Insufficient scientific findings precluded the evaluation to specify a reference dose of PFHxS. The average daily intake in Japan was obtained from the Total Diet Study conducted in a limited number of regions during the fiscal years 2012–2014: PFOS (Lower Bound to Upper Bound (LB–UB)** 0.60–1.1 ng/kg body weight/day, and PFOA (LB–UB) 0.066–0.75 ng/kg body weight/day. These values were lower than the TDIs. Due to the lack of sufficient data on PFAS concentrations and their distribution in various foods, it is necessary to be aware of these intake estimates carrying considerable uncertainty.

In recent years, as significant progress has been made in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, various peer-reviewed journals have been extending the policies on use of AI. Considering this situation, Food Safety felt the need to address concerns about the use of the technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots, or image creators in the writing and reviewing of manuscripts. Food Safety, thus, has compiled a tentative and preliminary guideline for responsible use of AI tools based on the ICMJE Recommendations. Authors and reviewers are expected to refer to this guideline during the manuscript preparation and peer-review process. Guide for Authors for Food Safety will be updated in response to the comments from authors and reviewers, as well as updates on the ICMJE Recommendations and policies of other journals. Please feel free to contact Editorial Office of Food Safety if you have any comments or questions about the guideline.