EU MENU Structural Metadata

The availability of detailed, harmonised and high-quality food consumption data for use in dietary exposure assessments is a long-term objective of EFSA. In 2009, the EFSA guidance on “General principles for the collection of national food consumption data in the view of a pan-European dietary survey” was published, and a pan-European food consumption survey, also known as the “EU Menu”, was launched. This structural metadata supports reporting of harmonised food consumption data for use in dietary exposure assessments of food-borne hazards and nutrient intake estimations. It was developed for 24-hour dietary recall studies. The reported foods should be described in accordance with the EFSA FoodEx2 food classification system.

This file indicates which data elements from the EU MENU will not be published to ensure full protection of confidential/sensitive information, for example personal data in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and to protect commercial interests, including intellectual property as specified in Article 4(2), first indent, of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.

The Excel tables contain information about the structural metadata elements of the data collection and their fact tables.

The column name shows the name of the element (e.g. localOrg).
The column description describes how the content has to be interpreted.
The column code expresses the corresponding code of the structural metadata element.
The column optional says whether the structural metadata element is optional or not (then it is mandatory).
The column dataType contains the type which can be used to fill the structural metadata element and the possible maximal length of the field. The possible types are: text or number.
The column catalogue contains the name of the catalogue where the content of the structural metadata element has to be picked from (e.g. COUNTRY).
The column data protection contains whether the structural metadata element will be published or not (yes = will not be published, no = will be published).

The structural metadata is available for the three EU Menu fact tables: Consumption, Food list and Subjects.