In the last decade, adverse outcome pathways have been introduced in the fields of toxicology and risk assessment of chemicals as pragmatic tools with broad application potential. While their use in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors has been well documented, their application in the food area remains largely unexplored. In this respect, an expert group of the International Life Sciences Institute Europe has recently explored the use of adverse outcome pathways in the safety evaluation of food additives. A key activity was the organization of a workshop, gathering delegates from the regulatory, industrial and academic areas, to discuss the potentials and challenges related to the application of adverse outcome pathways in the safety assessment of food additives. The present paper describes the outcome of this workshop followed by a number of critical considerations and perspectives defined by the International Life Sciences Institute Europe expert group.