Influence of the geographical origin on substance concentrations in herring as basis for dietary exposure assessments.

Previous investigations on agricultural products showed that geographical origin influences concentrations of selected undesirable substances and ultimately dietary exposure assessment. This could also be relevant for fish from different catching areas, as substance concentrations have been found to vary between catching areas. Herring was chosen as an example. Norwegian and German data on consumption and substance concentrations were considered. To investigate if concentrations of substances are different in Norway and Germany, monitoring data between 2012 and 2017 were used. Norway provided data of commercial catching areas from the Norwegian Spring Spawning (NSS) herring stock, while Germany had market data available. Concentrations of cadmium, mercury and selenium tended to be higher in herring from Norway, while lead concentrations were higher in Germany. Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) and non-dioxin-like PCBs (NDL-PCBs) tended to have higher concentrations in Germany, while perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) were mostly below quantifiable levels in the two countries. These differences could be attributed to different herring stocks available on the market in Germany and Norway. Country-specific data on consumption and substance concentrations give a basis for a refined exposure assessment covering both the Norwegian and the German situation. This is of special importance if European risk assessments are carried out combining concentration data recorded in several countries without taking origin into account.

Establishing a food list for a Total Diet Study: how does food consumption of specific subpopulations need to be considered?

A Total Diet Study (TDS) consists of selecting, collecting and analysing commonly consumed foods to obtain concentration data of different chemical compounds in foods as eaten. A TDS food list summarises the most consumed foods and represents the dietary habits of the general population of the country under study. The work reported here investigated whether TDS food lists that were initially designed for the whole population of the country under study also sufficiently cover the dietary pattern of specific subpopulations that are extra vulnerable for certain contaminants. The work was performed using data of three European countries: the Czech Republic, France and the UK. Each national food consumption database was combined with the corresponding national TDS food list (containing 336, 212 and 119 food items for the Czech Republic, France and the UK, respectively). The data were aggregated on the highest level of hierarchy of FoodEx-1, a pan-European food classification system, including 20 main FoodEx-1 groups. For the group 'milk and dairy products', the coverage of the consumption by the food list was investigated for more refined subgroups. For each food group or subgroup and country, the average percentage of coverage of the diet by the national TDS food list was calculated for different subpopulations, including children versus adults, women versus men, vegetarians versus non-vegetarians, and women of child-bearing age versus older women. The average diet of the different subpopulations was sufficiently covered by the food list of the Czech Republic and France. For the UK the average coverage was low due to a different food-coding approach and because food lists were not derived directly from national food consumption data. At the level of the 20 main food groups, differences between the subpopulations with respect to the average coverage of consumption by the TDS food list were minimal. The differences were more pronounced when looking in detail at the coverage of the dairy consumption. TDS food lists based on the mean consumption of the general population are also applicable to study the chemical exposure of different subpopulations, e.g. children, women of child-bearing age and vegetarians. This lowers the effort when performing a TDS.

Methodological characteristics of the national dietary surveys carried out in the European Union as included in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database.

In 2009 competent organisations in the European Union provided the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) with data from the most recent national dietary survey at the level of individuals' consumption. Twenty different Member States provided EFSA with data from 22 different national dietary surveys, with consumption figures for adults and, when available, for children. Member States' dietary data were assembled into the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database. In this paper an overview of the methodologies and protocols employed in the different national dietary surveys is provided. Specifically, details about dietary assessment methods, interview administration, sampling design, portion size estimation, dietary software, evaluation of under-reporting and non-dietary information collected are described. This information is crucial to evaluate the level of accuracy of food consumption data and to anticipate and acknowledge the utmost important sources of heterogeneity of national databases included in the Comprehensive Database. The Comprehensive Database constitutes a unique resource for the estimation of consumption figures across the European Union and represents a useful tool to assess dietary exposure to hazardous substances and nutrient intake in Europe. Nevertheless, the many substantial methodological differences that characterise the Comprehensive Database are acknowledged and critically discussed.

Dietary intake and sources of long-chain n-3 PUFAs in German adults.

Dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPA and DHA) was analysed, stratified by sex and age groups, using data from the German Nutrition Survey 1998. The median intake of both fatty acids combined (EPA and DHA) was 141 mg per day among women and 186 mg among men. In all age groups, women consumed less EPA and DHA than men, partly because of lower total intake. The lowest median intake was observed among women aged 18-24 years (84 mg) and the highest median intake among men aged 45-54 years (217 mg). The main sources of these fatty acids are fish (68%), eggs (12%), poultry (7%), meat and sausages (7%). The remaining 6% of EPA and DHA is supplied by bakery products.