Use of the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database in Exposure Assessment

The EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database (Comprehensive Database) has been built from existing national information on food consumption at a detailed level. Competent organisations in the European Union’s Member States provided EFSA with data from those most recent national dietary survey in their country, at the level of consumption by the individual consumer. This included food consumption data concerning infants (2 surveys from 2 Member States), toddlers (8 surveys from 8 Member States), children (16 surveys from 14 Member States), adolescents (14 surveys from 12 Member States), adults (21 surveys from 20 Member States), elderly (9 surveys from 9 Member States) and very elderly (8 surveys from 8 Member States) for a total of 32 different dietary surveys carried out in 22 different Member States. Surveys on children were mainly obtained through the Article 36 project “Individual food consumption data and exposure assessment studies for children” (acronym EXPOCHI). The aim of the present document is to give an overview of the Comprehensive Database and to provide guidance on its use for dietary exposure assessments. Summary statistics of this database are available on the EFSA website.

© European Food Safety Authority, 2011

This guidance published on 15^th April 2011 replaces the earlier version published on 2^nd March 2011

In 2008, following the recommendations received by the EFSA Scientific Committee, EFSA created the EFSA Concise European Food Consumption Database (hereafter called Concise Database). The Concise Database is the first database in Europe containing information from individual dietary surveys from the majority of EU Member States (19 countries). However, the Concise Database intended to provide consumption data only on a limited number of broad food categories. Hence, its use was limited to preliminary exposure assessments. More detailed information on food consumption in Europe is required to undertake more accurate exposure assessments, which are an integral part of the risk assessment process carried out at EFSA. In collaboration with the EU Member States, EFSA thus decided to develop a more detailed food consumption database called the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database (hereafter called Comprehensive Database).

The Comprehensive Database has been built on existing information on food consumption at a detailed level. By the end of 2008, competent organisations in EU Member States were approached to provide EFSA with data from the most recent national dietary survey in their country, including at least the adult population, at the level of consumption by the individual consumer. In addition, food consumption data for children, obtained through the EFSA Article 36 project “Individual food consumption data and exposure assessment studies for children” (acronym EXPOCHI), have been included in the Comprehensive Database. This now contains consumption data concerning infants (2 surveys from 2 Member States), toddlers (8 surveys from 8 Member States), children (16 surveys from 14 Member States), adolescents (14 surveys from 12 Member States), adults (21 surveys from 20 Member States), elderly (9 surveys from 9 Member States) and very elderly (8 surveys from 8 Member States) for a total of 32 different dietary surveys carried out in 22 different Member States.

The aim of the present document is to give an overview of the Comprehensive Database and to provide guidance on its use for dietary exposure assessments. Information concerning the methodologies used in each of the 32 dietary surveys included in the Comprehensive Database is presented. Methodological differences between the national dietary surveys related to the level of detail requested concerning the description of food and beverages, and consequently to their classification, have been identified. The preliminary version of the hierarchical food classification system ‘FoodEx’, developed by EFSA, was used to codify all foods and beverages present in the Comprehensive Database. FoodEx is a hierarchical system based on 20 main food categories that are further divided into subgroups up to a maximum of 4 levels. It was demonstrated that all data providers were able to classify correctly the large majority of their food to at least the 2^nd level of the FoodEx.

Summary statistics are available on the EFSA website. For each country, food consumption data are presented according to the 1^st (including 20 categories) and 2^nd (including around 160 categories) level of the preliminary FoodEx system; per age class (Infants, Toddlers, Other children, Adolescents, Adults, Elderly and Very elderly); and for the total population and for consumers only. The summary statistics include the total number of individuals and, for each of the first two FoodEx levels, age classes, number of consumers, the mean, median and the standard deviation, as well as low and high percentiles. Food consumption statistics are reported both in grams/day and in grams/kg body weight per day, for both chronic and acute consumption. Summary statistics from the Comprehensive Database can be used as a quick screening tool to assess chronic and acute exposure to hazardous substances. A method for this purpose is presented and discussed.

An agreement between EFSA and the national data providers clearly defines the conditions of use of the Comprehensive Database. EFSA has the right to use the raw individual food consumption data for carrying out risk assessments and other scientific analyses within the activities related to EFSA’s mandate and a formal authorisation from the data provider must be requested for any other use of the data. Currently, the EFSA Comprehensive Database is the best available source of food consumption information providing data on a EU-wide basis and will be very useful in the risk assessment work conducted by EFSA.

The use of these data for direct country-to-country comparisons is not advisable because the database comprises data collected using different methodologies. The collection of accurate and detailed food consumption data derived from a harmonised methodology across Europe is therefore still a primary long term objective for EFSA and has been recognised as a top priority for collaboration with the EU Member States. Therefore, a project proposal, called “What’s on the Menu in Europe? (EU MENU)”, has been developed by EFSA for the establishment of an EU-wide standardised food consumption data collection system.

Exposure assessment, food consumption data, dietary survey, food record, 24-hour recall, food classification