A harmonised approach for identifying core foods for total diet studies

Total diet studies (TDS) are used to gather information on chemical substances in food, thereby facilitating risk assessments and health monitoring. Candidate foods for inclusion in a TDS should represent a large part of a typical diet to estimate accurately the exposure of a population and/or specific population groups. There are currently no harmonised guidelines for the selection of foods in a TDS, and so the aim of this study was to explore the possibility of generating a harmonised approach to be used across Europe. Summary statistics data from the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Comprehensive Food Consumption Database were used in this research, which provided data from national food consumption surveys in Europe. The chosen methodology for the selection of foods was based on the weight of food consumed and consumer rate. Using the available data, 59 TDS food lists were created, representing over 51 000 people across 17 countries and seven population groups. All TDS food lists represented > 85% of the populations’ diets (85.9–96.3%), while the number of foods in the TDS food lists ranged from 15 to 102. Comparison of the TDS food lists indicated that the most commonly consumed foods included wheat bread and rolls, pastries and cakes, tomatoes, apples, bananas, and chicken, while cow’s milk, tap water and orange juice were the most commonly consumed beverages across Europe. This work was complete to support EFSA and other institutions in the development of harmonised TDS into the future.

总膳食研究（Total Diet Studies, TDS）用于采集食品中化学物质的相关信息，从而助力风险评估与健康监测工作。纳入总膳食研究的候选食品应能够覆盖典型膳食的主要组成部分，以精准估算某一人群或特定人群群体的化学物质暴露量。目前尚无针对总膳食研究食品遴选的统一化指南，因此本研究旨在探索可在欧洲范围内推广的统一化研究方法的构建路径。本研究采用了欧洲食品安全局（European Food Safety Authority, EFSA）综合食品消费数据库的汇总统计数据，该数据库涵盖了欧洲各国的国民食品消费调查数据。本次研究选用的食品遴选方法以食品食用量与消费者占比为核心依据。依托现有数据，研究团队共生成59份总膳食研究食品清单，覆盖17个国家的7个人群群体，涉及超51000名调查对象。所有总膳食研究食品清单均可覆盖对应人群85%以上的膳食摄入（覆盖比例区间为85.9%~96.3%），单份清单包含的食品数量介于15至102种之间。对各食品清单的对比分析显示，欧洲范围内食用频率最高的食品包括小麦面包与餐包、糕点与蛋糕、番茄、苹果、香蕉及鸡肉；而消费量最高的饮品则为牛奶、自来水与橙汁。本研究成果可为欧洲食品安全局及其他机构未来开展统一化总膳食研究工作提供支撑。