Event Detail

 

 

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, compounds migrating from packaging, chemical contaminants, pesticide residues, microbial contamination, new functional or novel ingredients and food allergens. There is currently a need for the harmonisation of methods, principles and approaches to conducting and reporting dietary intake/exposure assessments.
Assessment of exposure to chemicals including ingredients from the diet is an obligatory task for the assessment of risk or nutrition. There are ranges of guidances available, and the aspects required to conduct an assessment are well known. Individual guidances do not however cover all aspects, and it is likely that there is variation between guidances and the practical reality of conducting an assessment.
The ILSI Europe Food Intake Methodology Task Force initiated an activity on “A Practical Guide to the Principles of Dietary Intake / Exposure Assessment”, which aims at producing a practical guide for conducting intake/exposure assessments. The guide will be an important reference source for stakeholders, providing concise guidance on the planning, conduct, reporting and interpretation of exposure assessments. It will provide the basis for a workshop on dietary exposure methodologies and will also be developed into materials for future training courses.
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 and EFSA.
The Food Intake Methodology task force have organised a workshop on exposure assessment on 29-30th November 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland with invited experts from various stakeholder platforms.

 

 

The objective was to provide a single source of reference (in the form of a website ‘GUIDEA’) that is concise in providing guidance on the planning, conduct, reporting and interpretation of assessments. It is additionally intended to develop this work into materials for future training courses.
The workshop in November prototyped the preliminary version of the ‘GUIDEA’ website on exposure assessment, which has been reviewed and tested for its usability.

 

To incorporate comments from the workshop into the ‘GUIDEA’ website and launch the final version of the site in autumn 2012 which would be open for public access.
In addition it is intended to publish a short communication in a peer-reviewed journal which will highlight the proceedings of the workshop and also provide a link to the website.

 

Please follow the link to access the programme.

 

 

For more information: info@ilsieurope.be