title: Harmonisation of food consumption data format for dietary exposure assessments of chemicals analysed in raw agricultural commodities.
abstract: In this paper, we present an approach to format national food consumption data at raw agricultural commodity (RAC) level. In this way, the data is both formatted in a harmonised way given the comparability of RACs between countries, and suitable to assess the dietary exposure to chemicals analysed in RACs at a European level. In this approach, consumption data needs to be converted to edible part of RAC (e-RAC) level using a RAC conversion database. To subsequently use this data in exposure assessments, both e-RACs and RACs analysed in chemical control programmes should be classified via a uniform system. Furthermore, chemical concentrations in RACs may need to be converted to e-RAC level using processing factors. To illustrate the use of this approach, we describe how the Dutch RAC conversion database was used to convert consumption data of four national consumption surveys to e-RAC level, and the use of the FAO/WHO Codex Classification system of Foods and Animal Feeds to harmonise the classification. We demonstrate that this approach works well for pesticides and glycoalkaloids, and is an essential step forward in the harmonisation of risk assessment procedures within Europe when addressing chemicals analysed in RACs by all national food control systems.
authors.affiliation: RIKILT - Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 230, 6700 AE Wageningen, The Netherlands. polly.boon@wur.nl
authors.forename: Polly E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Boon
authors.forename: Jiri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruprich
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Shahnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moussavian
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Debegnach
authors.forename: Jacob D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: van Klaveren
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004435:Eating; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009426:Netherlands; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*