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EFSA Lowers the Safe Level for TFA in Food: What Home Cooks Need to Know
EFSA has lowered its acceptable daily intake for trifluoroacetic acid, a chemical that can reach soil, water and food crops. Here is what the update means for everyday food safety.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has lowered the acceptable daily intake for trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA, after reviewing new scientific evidence. The updated assessment, published on 22 July 2026, gives European food-safety authorities a stricter benchmark for evaluating long-term dietary exposure.
TFA is a chemical that can form when certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) break down. EFSA also identifies some pesticide active substances as sources. Once present in the environment, TFA can reach groundwater, soil and food crops. EU Member States already monitor PFAS in drinking water, while separate monitoring programmes track PFAS in food.
What EFSA changed
EFSA’s experts reduced the acceptable daily intake, or ADI, from 0.05 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day to 0.014 milligrams. That new figure is about 3.5 times lower than the previous value. EFSA also established an acute reference dose of 0.07 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.
An ADI is a health-based estimate of how much of a substance can be consumed daily over a lifetime without presenting an appreciable risk to health. It is a risk-assessment value used by authorities; it is not a household measurement that shoppers can calculate from a single ingredient label or recipe.
EFSA said the revised values reflect evidence showing that TFA can change levels of thyroxine, a hormone produced by the thyroid gland that helps regulate the body. The authority also highlighted remaining questions about possible long-term toxicity, carcinogenicity and developmental immunotoxicity. An additional uncertainty factor was included when the new ADI was calculated.
How the assessment was built
The update followed a call for data that ran from 6 August to 7 October 2024. EFSA considered data from EU country assessments of pesticide products that can form TFA, earlier EFSA assessments of relevant pesticide substances, studies reviewed by the European Chemicals Agency and industry data.
The process also included public input. EFSA reported receiving 177 comments during its consultation and said that all were considered in the final report. The work involved experts from EU countries, academia and other organisations.
The scientific report behind the announcement is available through the EFSA Journal. Its findings now feed into the wider European discussion on how to manage TFA and related PFAS concerns.
What this means in the kitchen
For home cooks, this is a food-safety news update rather than a new cooking technique or a product recall. EFSA has not announced a household method for removing TFA from food, nor does the notice give consumers a new cooking temperature, storage rule or ingredient to avoid. The new values are intended to help the European Commission and EU Member States decide whether further protective measures are needed.
That distinction matters. A lower ADI does not mean that every food containing trace environmental contaminants is unsafe, and it does not identify a particular supermarket product as a risk. It means that regulators are using a more protective reference point while they assess exposure and consider controls.
The sensible response is to keep following the food-safety instructions that apply to the foods you buy: respect product labels, observe official recalls and alerts, and rely on national food-safety authorities for any consumer action. There is no evidence in EFSA’s announcement that washing, freezing or cooking food at home can reliably remove TFA, so readers should be wary of unsupported kitchen “detox” claims.
What happens next
The European Commission and EU Member States will take EFSA’s new levels into account when discussing measures to protect consumers. EFSA is also working with the European Chemicals Agency on how PFAS pesticides break down into TFA and how the substance behaves in soil and water. That work is expected to continue until next summer.
For now, the useful takeaway is straightforward: TFA is being assessed more cautiously, but the July announcement is not a reason to discard ordinary foods or change safe cooking routines. It is a signal that European risk managers are updating the science used to monitor chemical contaminants across the food chain.