Background
Exposure assessment is a key component of any risk-benefit assessment, yet it is clear that there is a lack of reliable methodology in this area for assessing consumer exposures to both food constituents and non-food products. In the case of dietary exposure, assessments we are concerned with assessing the exposure to a broad range of compounds of differing chemistries, functions and use levels in foods. These include nutrients, additives, flavourings, materials migrating from packaging, chemical contaminants, pesticide residues, microbial contamination, new functional or novel ingredients, food allergens.
The ILSI Europe Food Intake Methodology Task Force aims at developing and evaluating methodologies to accurately quantify food intake and exposure to the above mentioned food constituents. This goal is aligned to EFSA’s efforts towards the harmonisation of exposure assessment methodologies that started in 2005. In that prospect, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is currently seeking to bring into line methodologies for human exposure assessment and building harmonised food consumption and composition databases.
Objectives
As exposure assessment is a field that obviously cuts across several ILSI Europe task forces, the Food Intake Methodology Task Force proposes to organise an ILSI Europe joint Brainstorming Meeting on Exposure Assessment. The objective of the meeting will be to:
· Evaluate how exposure assessment impacts the activities within each task force.
· Review where current activities within each task force overlap.
· Identify areas in which future research needs to be undertaken.
By fostering interchange between the different task forces that is mutually productive and beneficial, this meeting will offer a unique opportunity for:
· Developing communication between task forces that are concerned by exposure assessment issues.
· Coordinating across task forces efforts.
· Initiating collaborations between the Food Intake Methodology Task Force and other task forces.
Taking a structured approach, the meeting will start with 10-minute presentations by each task force representative on how various types of exposure assessment methods impacts their task force activities. This will be followed by a discussion and
conclusion session. The net result will probably be a working paper for ILSI Europe and also evolve newer ideas for activities which maybe undertaken by the Food Intake Methodology Task Force or collaborative activities by the task forces.
To download the summary report, click here.
For more details, please contact Dr. Pratima Rao Jasti (pjasti@ilsieurope.be)