Exposure assessment within a Total Diet Study: A comparison of the use of the pan-European classification system FoodEx-1 with national food classification systems

Akhandaf Y., Van Klaveren J., De Henauw S., Van Donkersgoed G., Van Gorcum T., Papadopoulos A., Sirot V., Kennedy M., Pinchen H., Ruprich J., Rehurkova I., Perello G., Sioen I.. (2015)

Food and Chemical Toxicology, 78, April 2015

A Total Diet Study (TDS) consists of selecting, collecting and preparing commonly consumed foods purchased at retail level and analysing them for harmful and/or beneficial chemical substances. A food classification system is needed to link food consumption data with the contaminant concentration data obtained in the TDS for the exposure assessment. In this study a comparison was made between the use of a national food classification systems and the use of FoodEx-1, developed and recommended by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The work was performed using data of six European countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, The Netherlands, Spain and the UK. For each population, exposure to contaminant A (organic compounds) and/or contaminant B (inorganic compound) was assessed by the Monte Carlo Risk Assessment (MCRA) software using the national classification system and FoodEx-1 for food consumption data and for TDS laboratory results. Minimal differences between both approaches were observed. This observation applied for both contaminant A and contaminant B. In general risk assessment will be similar for both approaches; however, this is not guaranteed. FoodEx-1 proved to be a valuable hierarchic classification system in order to harmonise exposure assessment based on existing TDS results throughout Europe.

Food and Chemical Toxicology, 78, April 2015

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