title: Assessment of extreme levels of chronic food intakes.
abstract: Acceptable daily intake (ADI) of food constituents refers to "daily ingestion over a lifetime." There is a need to determine mean and extreme daily intakes of defined constituents, in order to compare them with their ADI. The significance of overstepping the ADI during long periods must be discussed in relation with the definition of chronic toxicity. It is seldom possible to obtain original data on the intakes of food constituents, which must be evaluated from data on food intakes. Such data issued mainly from the French Observatoire des Consommations Alimentaires are used to present and discuss the choice of cut-off points (percentiles) to determine unacceptable high-level intakes. When distributions of individual intakes of food are available, the estimation of extreme levels of food intakes from mean intakes is possible with precautions. The characterization of extreme consumers is helpful to define target groups for informative or preventive actions. Foresight of extreme consumptions is made difficult due to time-related and generation effects.
authors.affiliation: AFSSA, French Food Safety Agency, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chambolle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004435:Eating; D005503:Food Additives / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008452:Maximum Allowable Concentration; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D005503:Food Additives; D015386:Hazardous Substances