percentile
A way of visualising the low, medium and high occurrences of a measurement (e.g. vitamin C intake) by splitting the whole distribution into one hundred equal parts
In food safety, a percentile is a way of describing how exposure or intake values are distributed in a population. It shows the value below which a certain percentage of people fall. For example, the 95th percentile of dietary exposure means that 95% of the population is exposed to that level or less, while only 5% are exposed to more.
EFSA uses percentiles mainly in dietary exposure assessments. Instead of looking only at average exposure, EFSA also considers higher percentiles, such as the 90th or 95th percentile, to represent high consumers of a food or substance. This helps ensure that safety assessments protect not just the average person but also those who consume larger amounts, such as children or specific population groups.