The raw primary commodity (RPC) model: strengthening EFSA's capacity to assess dietary exposure at different levels of the food chain, from raw primary commodities to foods as consumed

Dietary exposure is typically calculated by combining food consumption data with occurrence data. EFSA's food consumption data are stored in the Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database (Comprehensive Database). Some of these data, however, cannot be used in exposure assessments when the occurrence data are reported for the raw primary commodities (RPCs). The RPC model aims to bridge this gap by transforming the Comprehensive Database into RPC consumption data. Using the RPC model, EFSA successfully developed a new RPC Consumption Database, which contains 51 dietary surveys from 23 different countries. These surveys cover a total of 94,532 subjects and 26,573,088 RPC consumption records. The consumption data generated by the RPC model were manually checked and validated by means of case studies. These case studies demonstrated that the RPC consumption data are suitable for assessing dietary exposure to chemicals where the occurrence data are predominantly available for RPCs.