Episode 32 – Data vs stereotypes: what Europeans eat

Sofia Ioannidou (Teaser)

I love cooking, contact with the food, data, it was always exciting for me. The wealth that all this data gives you, it's really amazing. You start from numbers and then you end up with a result that is really significant for Europeans’ health.

James Ramsay (00:00)

Hello, and welcome to Science on the menu. Today, we're going to be talking about food consumption data. What we eat, how much we eat and why it matters so much for public health and food safety.  

From shaping nutrition policies to chemical risk assessments, the data that we collect on food is behind many of the decisions that are made in the EU on food safety. And joining me today to discuss this topic, I'm very pleased to welcome one of our scientists at EFSA, leading scientist, in fact, in this area, Sofia Ioannidou. Hi, Sofia. A warm welcome to you. How are you today?  

Sofia Ioannidou (01:05)

Very nice, thank you.  

James Ramsay (01:08)

So, we're receiving information from member states, also from outside of Europe?  

Sofia Ioannidou (01:13)

Pre-accession countries.

James Ramsay (01:15)

Pre-accession countries, okay, about what people are eating, how much they're eating, this kind of thing. What are we tracking, everything? Anything?  

Sofia Ioannidou (01:21)

We are having data studies from infants, very small infants, from three months old until very elderly. But also, we are covering special population groups like for example, pregnant women, lactating women or even vegetarians.  

James Ramsay (01:35)

And what kind of level of detail are you going into?  

Sofia Ioannidou (01:36)

Very detailed. So, we are actually looking into each single food the people are having, in each single eating occasion. So, for example, for breakfast, whether they have a coffee or bread with butter and jam or orange juice or egg, whatever, so every nitty gritty detail that they can provide, we are collecting it.  

James Ramsay (01:57)

And why? I mean, why do we collect data on food consumption in the context of, the work that we're doing here at EFSA?  

Sofia Ioannidou (02:06)

It's actually the basis for the exposure assessments that we are performing, which is also part of the risk assessment process. So, we have from the one side the concentration on chemicals or on nutrients, and from the other side the consumption. We put them together, and then we're able to calculate how much the population is exposed to these chemicals, or how much of this nutrient is taken in. So, to understand whether there is a risk for the population or there is a deficiency, for example, for nutrients.  

James Ramsay (02:32)

So, if we were to say, for example, we know that if you consume a certain chemical, for example, above a certain level, it could pose a risk. Then, with the data that we have in this database, we're able to see which population groups in the EU are above that level, below that level and so on. That allows us to finalise the risk assessment or do the characterisation of risk.  

Sofia Ioannidou (02:53)

Correct, yes. This goes into the opinions, and then it's up to the Commission then to decide whether, for example, they will modify the maximum limits for some chemicals.  

James Ramsay (03:02)

Okay. You have a wealth of information and knowledge around what the Europeans are eating. I mean, it's a very popular topic, food, in any country you go to, every country has their own food traditions.  

So, I want to explore this a little bit more with you. I had some questions in mind in the form of a very simple quiz, let’s say. If I were to ask you which country in the EU consumes the most meat, for example?

Sofia Ioannidou (03:32)

Okay. Well, meat has different types of meat, of course. From what I remember from the data, it would be Ireland consuming most of the beef meat. But then it will come, for example, Cyprus, consuming the most of pork or chicken meat.  

James Ramsay (03:48)

Okay. Cyprus, as an island. Maybe you might expect fish to be higher up.  

Sofia Ioannidou (03:53)

They do, they have also high consumption in fish as well, but apparently they also consume a lot of pork and chicken.  

James Ramsay (03:59)

Okay, interesting. Which countries are big fish consumers then?  

Sofia Ioannidou (04:02)

There's all the Mediterranean. So, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal for general fish. But then for example, when talking about salmon it would be Sweden, the leader.

James Ramsay (04:13)

Looking at your data, you could say general consumption of fish, Southern Mediterranean. But then on a specific type of fish, you're able to single out?  

Sofia Ioannidou (04:23)

We have very detailed information on all different kind of fishes.  

James Ramsay (04:28)

Okay. What about cheese? Who eats the most cheese in the EU?  

Sofia Ioannidou (04:33)

I think it would be Finland and Estonia. Top consumers, let's say. It depends also on the type of cheese, because we have many in our catalogue that we use for classifying the food: we have mozzarella, parmesan, we have brie, we have feta, we have halloumi. We have many different types.

James Ramsay (04:52)

Okay, because obviously these cheeses are eaten all over the EU. Let's try another one, maybe on a stereotype to do with food. So, apologies listeners, we're going to test a food stereotype here. What about Belgians and chocolate? This is a link that's often made in people's minds. Is it true that the Belgians, for example, eat the most chocolate in Europe?  

Sofia Ioannidou (05:14)

They produce it, but apparently, they don't eat it. It's Danish people that eat most of the chocolate. They do have very good chocolate in Belgium.  

James Ramsay (04:52)

Okay, maybe one link to the country that we're in right now, which is Italy. So, I think most people would assume that Italians eat the most pasta in the EU.  

Sofia Ioannidou (05:33)

It is correct. Italians do eat a lot of pasta. I think it's something like an average per day, something like sixty grams every single day.  

James Ramsay (05:45)

You'd be good in a quiz situation, a general knowledge quiz on food. What are some of the, if you like, more peculiar, or strange things that you're monitoring or collecting data on, as far as food is concerned?

Sofia Ioannidou (05:58)

When the data are arriving, we are doing a kind of validation to make sure that they look okay. I remember that once, going through the data, we saw that a person, I don't know now from which country was coming from, has reported twelve bananas in one single day and nothing else, only bananas. I said, okay, this doesn’t seem correct, we have a maximum limit, like three bananas per day, so it really came out as an outlier. We said, okay, we go back to the country, and we report that, and we say, can you please confirm that this is the case? And they said: this is the case. That person consumed only twelve bananas and nothing else that day. So, we kept the data as such.  

James Ramsay (06:38)  

So, somewhere in your database is a person eating twelve bananas a day? Probably not recommended from a nutrition food safety point of view, I would say. Tell us about the size of the database. How many different food categories are you tracking?  

Sofia Ioannidou (06:54)

We are having a classification system according to which we are asking countries to code the food, so we have a kind of harmonisation, and we understand what we're talking about. We have many entries there. Currently, the database contains something like two thousand five hundred different food items that has been reported to be consumed, and this is from around two hundred and fifty thousand EU citizens.  

James Ramsay (07:20)  

Okay. And that's not just food that's produced, it can be any food?

Sofia Ioannidou (07:25)

It can also be imported, brought from a trip, eaten in a restaurant or cooked at home.  

James Ramsay (07:31)  

Okay, so food from any part of the world that could be consumed in the diets of EU citizens is included in your database. We talked about specific food categories and so on. What happens if you take a look at the database from a more global perspective? What does it tell you about society's relationship with food in general? Can you see trends over time, how we eat different things?  

Sofia Ioannidou (07:59)

You can see, for example, as we said before in the quiz, different consumption patterns between the different countries. So where, for example, meat is being consumed mostly. Olive oil for example, that is being consumed mostly in the southern part of Europe as well. Instead, going up you have butter and seed oil, for example. And then you can see also different trends, like energy drinks in the diet or food supplements that are being consumed a lot nowadays, or alternatives to meat.  

James Ramsay (08:33)  

Okay. So, you would see that there's a rise over time of a particular food stuff or food category.

Sofia Ioannidou (08:37)

From the food that were being reported during the surveys we can see these entries there and we can understand that this is moving towards that direction, for example.  

James Ramsay (08:49)  

Interesting. How do you get into food safety consumption data, Sofia? I mean, what's your background? How did you end up doing this at EFSA?  

Sofia Ioannidou (08:57)

Well, I'm a food chemist. I love cooking, contact with the food, data, it was always exciting for me. The wealth that all this data gives you, it's really amazing. You start from numbers and then you end up with a result that is really significant for the Europeans’ health.  

James Ramsay (09:16)

Is something like this done also at a global level? Are there other organisations? The WHO? Are they maintaining similar kind of databases? How do you bring everything together?  

Sofia Ioannidou (09:28)

Actually, we are collaborating with FAO and WHO. Most of the data that we have in the comprehensive database are also part of the global database that FAO, for example, holds. They also adopted the food classification system we have in place.  

James Ramsay (09:46)

And why is that important?  

Sofia Ioannidou (09:48)

To bring harmonisation and being able not to, for example, stand only on the original name of the food or the English translation, but have a code behind. The data are easily accessible and treated.

James Ramsay (10:04)

For anyone who's using it.  

Sofia Ioannidou (10:08)

These data are very important. Not only Europe, but across the globe. They are collecting data also from other areas of the world: Africa, America, Australia. There are many data there. We have also given input from the work done in Europe to be adopted by other countries outside Europe.  

James Ramsay (10:30)

Great, okay. Sofia, we're coming to the end. Before we go, I just wanted to get a sense from you, how you think the work around food consumption data will or could develop in the future. I'm thinking the emergence of new technologies. It's quite a kind of manual or laborious task collecting this information as it at the moment. You have to have an interview with an individual to gather information, is a more efficient way of doing this, do you think, on the horizon?  

Sofia Ioannidou (10:58)

Yes, definitely it is, because it takes a lot of time. The classical way of having an interviewer visiting your house and then going through your diet, the last day in detail, it's quite cumbersome. We see now coming in the self-administered method. So, for example, an application on your phone or visiting a website, signing in and then putting all your data there. Some years ago, we had a presentation about a wearable chip that was attached to your teeth. In combination with the picture of the food, then this chip, from the time that you were chewing, was able to track the quantity of the food you were consuming at that moment. You had the picture from one side and the information from the chip, and then they were going directly to the database.  

James Ramsay (11:45)

Oh, wow. So, that's the future. Wearable chips. I can't imagine we're all going to be wearing chips in our teeth. But who knows? I guess you really get a more detailed understanding of the amount, rather than an estimation.  

Sofia Ioannidou (10:58)

But of course, these methods need to be validated and then tested. We are heading towards that.  

James Ramsay (12:05)  

Great. Sofia, it's been really interesting talking to you. Thank you very much. We'll leave you to get back to your important work.

Listeners, thanks very much for joining us. We'd be very happy to see you again on our podcast for the next time. If you're interested in the work we're doing on food consumption data, please do check out our website. You can find a lot of information there, as well as the database itself. You can follow us on our social media channels for more information about the next episodes here on Science on the menu. Thanks very much, and goodbye.