EU Menu surveys could lower costs for industry
Most EU member states do already collect data on the population’s eating habits. While these can help inform national policies and nutrition surveillance, methodological differences mean data cannot be directly compared between states.
In some cases the data is not precise enough to allow adequate assessment of exposure to contaminants or other harmful elements in food.
A new declaration to carry out the first pan-European consumption survey – dubbed the EU Menu – was signed by member states’ food safety representatives in Seville last week. The preparatory phase will take place in 2010 and 2011, and the collection of food consumption data will be carried out under a rolling programme between 2012 and 2017.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will play a central role in coordinating data collection.
According to the declaration, the data will prove useful for the planning, implementation and evaluation of nutrition and public health campaigns, such as those aimed at curbing obesity, reducing salt consumption.
It will also be helpful for a range of risk assessment functions, such as monitoring of existing hazards, and evaluating emerging risks. It will be easier to calculate the potential impact of any food safety risk for sectors of the European population.
Industry benefit
The declaration recognises that the EU Menu project will bring cost benefits for food industry, as food safety risk assessments will become more accurate.
A spokesperson for EFSA explained that the authority usually errs on the side of caution when it conducts exposure analyses, using conservative estimates of how much of certain foods people eat. This means that standards may, in some cases, be higher than they actually need to be to protect the consumer – and higher standards may mean higher compliance costs for industry.
He emphasises that any easing up of standards would still provide full protection to consumers.
Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation, said:
"FDF support this initiative, which has been under development for quite some time. It is crucial that consumption data used by food authorities, including EFSA, for risk assessment and dietary considerations are up-to-date and comparable."
Concise European Food Consumption Database
The planned survey represents a new step in a long-term plan for more coordinated data collection, which kicked off in 2005 following an opinion from EFSA’s Scientific Committee in 2005 that such data is sorely needed.
As a first step, member states came together to establish the Concise European Food Consumption Database, which will become operational this year and will “greatly improve the accuracy of EFSA’s exposure assessment calculations”, according to the declaration.
However methodological differences mean the data is still non-comparable across the bloc, so gathering “accurate and harmonised” data remains the long term goal.
Another programme called EuroFIR, the European Food Information Resource Network, is working to collate data on food composition in Europe, so that more accurate food and nutrient intake studies can be performed.
“We would very much support the development of common methodologies for collecting consumption data and integrating composition data into these new interfaces,” Paul Finglas, EuroFIR director, told FoodNavigator.com.
