Skip navigation

Food Standards Agency

Saturday 4 July 2009

Safer food better business banner

AZ-Directory What's New

Views on semicarbazide

Saturday 1 November 2003

This research was commissioned to discover the views of mothers of young babies about the issue of semicarbazide (SEM).

SEM is a chemical by-product of the plastic seals used on the inside of metal twist-off lids of glass jars. Following an initial alert in July 2003 about the possibility of SEM getting into food, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) initiated a risk assessment.

These sorts of seals are also used in glass jars of baby food and much of the publicity at the time focused on this.

The Food Standards Agency commissioned two pieces of research on the subject, the first consisting of two focus groups before the EFSA report was made public, and the second of 49 short qualitative interviews immediately after the announcements.

Back to top

Related links

Mothers' views on semicarbazide and food packaging before and after EFSA announcement

Download pdf  (pdf 61KB) (External) Get Adobe Acrobat reader You may need the free Acrobat Reader to view a pdf

Tell a Friend

Printer friendly

Contact us

Get alerts

Our Sites

Find out what our other sites have to offer

Change Text Only Settings

Graphic version of this page