The OLIGO project aims at stimulating and supporting a thorough risk assessment related to the dietary exposure of the French population to cyclic oligoesters migrating from polyester-based coatings into canned foodstuffs. It addresses a timely and important public health issue related to the chemical safety of food that has not yet been resolved Epoxy-resins based on bisphenol A (BPA) diglycidyl ether have traditionally been used worldwide in internal coatings applied to metallic food contact materials. Due to concerns of both consumers and the scientific community, restrictions have been applied at the EU scale on the use of BPA, including a ban in baby bottles and a drastic specific migration limit from plastics or varnishes and coatings to food. In France, a complete ban of BPA entered into force in 2015. Industrial stakeholders have conceded enormous efforts to adapt through the evolution of technologies and conservation processes. Polyester-based coatings have grown into predominant alternatives to BPA-based epoxy resins. A large range of polyol- and polyacid-monomers, for which migration into foodstuffs is under control, may be used, offering numerous polyester combinations. However, oligoesters, which are non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) constitutive of polyester-based coatings arising from incomplete polymerisation reactions (up to 2% of the resin's weight, mostly cyclic combinations of 4 to 8 monomers), have not yet been subjected to a robust and transparent risk assessment, their wide chemical diversity raising analytical issues. So far, missing data relate to (i) our knowledge on the extent of polyester-based coatings' use on the market (France standing apart), (ii) the comprehensive identification of oligoesters, (iii) the related human exposure following migration into food, and (iv) their fate (e.g. liver biotransformation and potential bioactivation triggering adverse effects). Within the project OLIGO, the main scientific bottleneck – the unavailability of representative authentic standards – will be tackled through the organic synthesis of native compounds as well as deuterium- and radio-labelled compounds, in order to (i) comprehensively identify the oligoesters present in marketed cans, (ii) quantify their migration into food and (iii) assess in vitro their metabolism and potential toxicity to human. Exposure assessment of the French population will be balanced with hazard identification aspects in order to establish a provisional risk assessment and further recommendations. Addressing the challenge of characterising NIAS such as oligoesters requires resources and information which are not available to most of the agro-industrial stakeholders. Five public and academic partners are involved in OLIGO. CEISAM (CNRS UMR 6230, Nantes) will provide other partners with a set of representative authentic standards to be synthesised stepwise. LABERCA (INRAE UMR 1329, Nantes) will coordinate the project and will achieve oligoesters’ identification in coatings and their quantification in foodstuffs. To this end, a previously developed workflow will be applied to identify oligoesters, with much attention paid to the sample preparation of foodstuffs. LNC (INSERM UMR 1231, Dijon) will study genotoxicity, performing in vitro regulatory bioassays based on OECD guidelines, and endocrine disruption potencies, performing bioassays of the level 2 (mode of action) of OCDE framework. TOXALIM (INRAE UMR 1331, Toulouse) will carry out in vitro human liver biotransformation assays (hazard identification, biomarker metabolites) and gain a broader understanding of the fate of oligoesters. ANSES, the French agency for food, environmental and occupational health & safety, will define a sound sampling plan and lead the output provisional risk assessment.

In France and worldwide, during COVID-19 pandemic workers in the agri-food sector are considered part of the essential workforce of critical infrastructures, and this concerns farmers as well as employees in processing plants, truck drivers who make deliveries as well as hypermarket cashiers. In addition, in some countries such as the US, by presidential decree, meat and poultry processing plants must continue to operate to avoid disruption to the food supply chain. The workers in these industries may be more exposed to coronaviruses because telework is not possible, and many face increased risks due to the proximity of their work environment. There is a need to carefully address the issue of virus circulation in meat processing plants in France from three perspectives: (i) protection of workers and avoidance of these premises becoming hotspots of virus circulation in the communities; (ii) prevention of the closure of these processing plants and ensuring supplies; and (iii) prevention of contamination of food in order to avoid the export of this virus to other locations. The main goal of this project is to gain insights on the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in meat processing plants in order to provide preventive or risk mitigation measures for workers and consumers. We are planning to gather/collect the data necessary to understand the circulation of the virus in this type of workplace and to use them to build a simulation model of the propagation of the SARS-CoV-2. The present project will be organized into four work packages. First, the SARS-CoV-2 transmission and persistence factors in meat processing plants will be studied. The objectives of WP1 is to carry out an extensive literature review on SARS-CoV-2 transmission factors/parameters in order to extract relevant data for studying the circulation of the virus in meat processing plants and to define protocols to be conducted under laboratory conditions to overcome data gaps or uncertainties on certain virus transmission parameters/factors. In the second work package, a description of the conditions and environmental factors of work in meat processing plants will be done, through questionnaires and interviews (face to face) as well as observations, to be carried out in authentic food processing plants. The data collected will be used to provide directions and clarifications for the laboratory work carried out in WP1, and to populate the simulation model. The objective of WP3 is to construct a mathematical model to simulate the spread of the virus in a meat-processing plant in order to assess the impact of certain prevention or mitigation measures on the probability of transmission of the virus to employees and the contamination of products and the environment. This model will also allow us to explore the transmission of the virus outside the plants. The objective of the WP4 is to provide different critical communication mechanisms to engage employees in an effective safety management policy, gain cooperation and support, and maintain a positive safety culture. The impacts of this project will be 1) to increase the knowledge about how the virus is transmitted in a professional setting; 2) provide solutions to companies to better calibrate their preventive measures and mitigate the risks in the event of the introduction of the virus into their premises; 3)provide tangible data on transmission modalities and simulate the circulation of the virus according to different scenarios and 4) provide a decision support for business and government based on science and available data. The approach is extendable to other situations: processing plants, offices, universities, public places, etc.