Overview of existing European food consumption databases: critical aspects in relation to their use for the assessment of dietary exposure to additives, flavourings and residues of food contact materials

Abstract

A critical analysis of existing food consumption databases was performed with particular regard for their current and potential use for the assessment of dietary exposure to additives, flavourings and residues of food contact materials.

Within the European Food Consumption Validation project (EFCOVAL), a questionnaire on critical aspects of such datasets was developed and administered to researchers responsible for the collection/analysis of national food consumption data in European countries. Information collected was complemented through a review of the literature and of grey publications in order to provide an inventory of the main food consumption surveys performed in Europe from 1994 to 2007, for a total of 23 countries and 37 surveys.

It appeared that existing European food consumption surveys have as a main objective the assessment of nutrient intake in the population. On the other hand, most of the databases were shown to be used also for the purpose of dietary exposure assessment.

Keywords::

• Food consumption databases
• dietary exposure assessment
• additives
• flavourings
• residues of food contact materials
• food ingredient database

Acknowledgements

The authors are most grateful to their EFCOVAL partners and in particular to Marga Ocké and Sandra Crispim for their critical review of the manuscript and their useful suggestions. The EFCOVAL partners were as follows: Belgium: Ghent University (DPH); Croatia: Academy of Medical Sciences (AMZH); Czech Republic: National Institute of Public Health (NIPH); Denmark: National Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU); France: French Food Safety Authority (AFSSA), and National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA); Germany: German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE); Italy: National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition (INRAN); the Netherlands: Wageningen University (WU) and National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM); Norway: University of Oslo; Spain: Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (BIOEF); UK: Prima informatics Ltd (Primainfo); and the International Organization: International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Declarations of interest: Community funding under the Sixth Framework Program for the European Food Consumption Validation (EFCOVAL) Contract no.: FP6-022895 Project start date: October 2006 Project end date: March 2010: http://www.efcoval.eu.