Advanced

Food Intake Methodology Task Force

Assessment of Benefits and Risks

Background and Objectives

Established in 1995 under the name of ‘Food Chemical Intake’, the Task Force (TF) aimed at establishing recommendations for the estimation of human intake through the diet of food chemicals, additives and contaminants.

The TF aims to periodically review, evaluate and develop new methodologies for estimation of intake of food substances (nutrients, food additives, ingredients, food contaminants etc.) to ensure food intake and exposure to food constituents accurately represents “real world” exposures.

In the past, this task force reviewed methods for screening flavourings and additives, the focus being on safety assessment of foods. Both deterministic and probabilistic measures were evaluated and the findings published in peer-reviewed journals.

Impact

A recent example is the sharing of a manuscript with EFSA in response to their call for scientific data on food colours to support the re-evaluation of all food colours authorised under the EU legislation. This article (M. Sardi et al., 2010, Food Additives and Contaminants, 1507 — 1515) focuses on fidelity cards which is a novel way of analysis for food colour intake.

In 1995, the task force organised a workshop on ‘Food Additives Intake: Scientific Assessment of the Regulatory Requirements in Europe’. The main conclusion from this workshop mentions that ILSI Europe could be instrumental in facilitating comparative studies aimed at identifying and validating methods for extrapolating from household food consumption survey data to food consumption by individuals.

The task force is developing web-based guidelines on exposure/intake assessment in the form of a wiki site which was reviewed at a workshop on ‘GUIDEA – Guidance for Dietary intake Exposure Assessment’. It is intended to develop this work into materials for future training courses.

Activities

GUIDEA : Guidance for Dietary Intake Exposure Assessment

The activity develops guidance for conducting intake/exposure assessments. The guide will be an important reference source for stakeholders, providing concise information on the planning, conducting, reporting and interpretation of exposure assessments.

Due to the identified need for training in the field of exposure assessment in Europe, it is anticipated that this project will fill an important gap. Furthermore, this exercise will help to better communicate the broader, more technical issues impacting exposure assessment outlined by the WHO/IPCS (International Programme on Chemical Safety) and EFSA.

The outcome of the project will be in the form of a website (www.ilsi-guidea.org) which will be complemented with a scientific article published in a peer-reviewed journal.

A workshop in November 2011 prototyped the preliminary version of the ‘GuIDEA’ website on exposure assessment which has been reviewed and tested for its usability. It was acknowledged that GuiDEA might provide a catalyst to facilitate interaction between approaches and thereby lead to greater harmonisation. It was agreed that one of the potential strengths of an interactive web-based system would be its ability to evolve and improve continuously over time. The discussions and conclusions generated by the November 2011 Workshop were greatly appreciated by the GuiDEA Expert Group. They will be taken into account in a further development of the website with a view to a launch of the website in its final form during the last half of 2012. The second phase of this activity will be to build on the long-term sustainability of the website and further build a basis for future training courses.

A brief summary of the workshop is available.

Uncertainty Analysis of the Use of a Retailer Fidelity Card Scheme in the Assessment of Food Additive Intake

The first study on fidelity cards completed in 2009 investigated the feasibility of using a retailer fidelity card scheme to estimate food additive intake. More recently a follow-up article was prepared and was published in the Food Additives and Contaminants Journal in December 2011. The article analyses the uncertainties inherent in the estimate of exposures in the previous study, following the EFSA guidance on handling uncertainties in dietary exposure assessment.

Involvement in FACET

FACET is the 7th Framework EU funded project Flavourings, Additives and food Contact materials Exposure Task. The objective of this four-year project that started in September 2008 is to estimate exposure to flavours, additives and food contact materials across Europe.

The concept behind this project is the creation of a food chemical exposure surveillance system, sustainable beyond the life of the project, which covers representative regions of the EU and which will meet, to the highest possible standard, the needs of the EU regulatory authorities in the protection of consumer health. The task force is represented by Dr. Neil Buck in the FACET project steering group. The representative provides scientific and technical input on behalf of the task force and is also keeping ongoing discussions about the exposure assessment activity (such as comments and suggestions in the development of the FACET software tool; A key area in FACET is developing the software tool that will host the data collected and ultimately run the exposure assessments).

Future Activities

The TF will be initiating a new activity to assess uncertainties in food intake assessments which will follow-up on the GUIDEA initiative. The activity will focus on how such surveys could be improved to provide more reliable intake data for specific categories such as water, GMOs, fortified foods, and novel foods which are generally not well represented in dietary surveys. Such a project is timely in the light of the pan-EU dietary survey study being launched by EFSA.
A second activity would be focussed on assessing methodologies for recording fluid and water intake. It is intended to address methodological issues involved in recording fluid and water intake in order to accurately quantify the consumption of beverages which is often underestimated in many countries in the world.

TASK Force Collaborators

Members 2012

Dr. Benjamin Smith - Chair -	Firmenich	CH
Dr. Neil Buck - Co-chair-	DSM	CH

Dr. Catherine Clapp	Unilever	UK
Dr. Veronika Ehrlich	Nestlé	CH
Dr. Susanne Kettler	Coca-Cola Europe	BE
Dr. Laurent Le Bellego	Danone	FR
Dr. Hervé Nordmann	Ajinomoto Europe	CH
Dr Regina Oberdörfer	Bayer CropScience BioScience	DE
Dr. Jürgen Schnabel	Givaudan International AG	CH
Prof. Colette Shortt	McNeil Nutritionals	UK
Dr. David Tennant	Consultant	UK
Dr. Abby Thompson	PepsiCo International	UK

Dr. Pratima Rao Jasti	ILSI Europe	BE
Mr. Frederic Timmermans	ILSI Europe	BE

Expert Group on GUIDEA : Guidance for Dietary Intake Exposure Assessment

Dr. David Tennant - Chair -	Consultant	UK

Ms. Martine Bakker	RIVM - National Institute of Public Health & the Environment	NL
Dr. Neil Buck	DSM	CH
Dr. Catherine Clapp	Unilever	UK
Dr. Veronika Ehrlich	Nestlé	CH
Mr. John Howlett	Consultant	UK
Dr. Astrid Kruizinga	TNO Quality of Life	NL
Dr. Isabelle Sioen	University of Ghent	BE
Dr. Benjamin Smith	Firmenich	CH
Prof. Pieter van’t Veer/ Dr. Jeanne de Vries	Wageningen University	NL
Dr. Philippe Verger*	World Health Organization (WHO)	CH

Dr. Pratima Rao Jasti	ILSI Europe	BE

*corresponding member

Expert Group on Uncertainty Analysis of the Use of a Retailer Fidelity Card Scheme in the Assessment of Food Additive Intake

Dr. David Tennant - Chair -	Consultant	UK

Dr. Neil Buck	DSM	UK
Dr. Veronika Ehrlich	Nestlé	CH
Dr. Yves Haldermann	Consultant (now working for Nestlé)	CH
Dr. Cronan Mcnamara	Creme Global	IE
Mr. John Mehegan	Unilever	UK
Dr. Hervé Nordmann	Ajinomoto Europe	CH
Dr. Robert Safford	Unilever (now consultant)	UK
Dr. Massimo Sardi	Consultant	CH
Dr. Benjamin Smith	Firmenich	CH

Dr. Pratima Rao Jasti	ILSI Europe	BE