It should be noted that the text in green italics throughout this Guidance aims to provide practical guidance to the assessors to conduct the commodity risk assessment.The Panel performs its commodity risk assessment following the relevant guiding principles and steps presented in the EFSA guidance on quantitative pest risk assessment (EFSA PLH Panel,
2018), in the guidance on evaluation of the effectiveness of risk‐reducing options (EFSA PLH Panel,
2012) and in the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No 11 and No 21 (FAO,
2004,
2013a). It should be noted that the Panel's conclusions are formulated to respect its remit and particularly with regard to the principle of separation between risk assessment and risk management (EFSA founding regulation (EU) No. 178/2002).
The data and supporting information provided in the dossier submitted by the applicant form the basis of the commodity risk assessment. In evaluating the dossier provided, EFSA PLH Panel assumes that the applicant followed the instructions contained in the Technical Report (EFSA,
2018).
Guidance is provided on the methodology to be used in the commodity risk assessment and concerns the evaluation of commodity data, identification of pests potentially associated with the commodity and evaluation of the risk mitigation measures.
Examples of databases that could be used for checking the completeness of the information provided are listed below:EPPO Global Database (https://gd.eppo.int/)
CABI Plant Protection Compendium (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/)
The Plant List (http://www.theplantlist.org/)
Index Fungorum (http://www.indexfungorum.org/)
MycoBank (http://www.mycobank.org/)
NEMAPLEX (http://plpnemweb.ucdavis.edu/)
Fauna Europaea (https://fauna-eu.org/)
EUROPHYT
USDA Agricultural Research Services (https://nt.ars-grin.gov/)
bibliographical databases
statistical databases
When performing a commodity risk assessment, the databases used to check the completeness of the information provided should be explicitly mentioned.At several points in the risk assessment process, additional information may be required. Figure
1 gives an overview of the points in the assessment process when this may be the case. This could include requests for clarifications or additional documentation from the applicant.
