EuroFIR AISBL Newsletter

Edition 15 > 12.2015

> Newsletter from EuroFIR Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif

>

Welcome 02

Introducing newer members 03

Members’ news and updates 04

EuroFIR AISBL news and updates 05

including EuroFIR Food Forum 2016 07

EU-funded project updates 09

Quality Assurance of Compilers’ FCDB 13

CONTENTS

02

Festive greetings!It has been a busy year for EuroFIR AIBSL with the launch of the new EuroFIR Food Forum in

March, as the basis for our annual meeting, which was extremely well received and appreci-

ated by our membership based on the feedback that we have received. We will be extend-

ing this format in April 2016 and already have an exciting programme in place with work-

shops, a symposium and compiler training. Please book your place as we are expecting the

even to be over subscribed!

Two of our EU-funded projects finished in 2015 (EuroDISH and QuaLiFY) and a third (TDS-Ex-

posure) will end in January 2016, so there have been final meetings and reporting to com-

plete. More specifically, QuaLiFY held its final meeting in Leuven (BE), with a stakeholder

event for SMEs, where plans for a new personalised nutrition platform (Quisper) were

presented including how good composition data can be integrated into the proposed

services for dietary intake. Two new H2020 projects have started involving EuroFIR: Refresh

and RICHFIELDS, and more information is included in this issue. The latter is funded from

the Research Infrastructure Programme, and we are actively exploring other calls next year

where we can combine our food data and tools as part of a larger food security, nutrition

and health platform.

EuroFIR has also attended several meetings and conferences this year including FENS,

where we organised a QuaLiFY Symposium, and the 11th International Food Data Confer-

ence (IFDC) in Hyderabad (IN), where we organised a satellite workshop around our food

data and tools, which was attended by several FAO INFOODS representatives as well as

other researchers and students. We also contributed financially to the main conference.

Several papers involving EuroFIR members from the 10th IFDC have been published in a

Special Issue of Food Chemistry, which is available as open access. Our aim in attending

these meetings and events is to promote the importance of the food composition data and

knowledge in food and nutrition research as well as promoting EuroFIR AIBSL and its

members.

The EuroFIR website has undergone a major overhaul as we try to improve its content and

functionality as well as providing an important resource for past published reports and

other information. Traffic to the site has increased and there has been positive feedback

from several of you, but it’s not perfect and we would welcome suggestions on other im-

provements. A big thanks you to Siân, Sidonie and Sam for their efforts with the website

and social media this year!

There have been some staff changes in the office with Jelena returning to Serbia to com-

plete her PhD on vitamin D. Vickà will also leave at the end of December to further her

studies, following a short stay with us to work on some of our EU projects. We wish both

our best wishes in their future careers. Angelika has also joined us to work mainly on

RICHFIELDS and support the membership activities.

Finally, on behalf of EuroFIR, the directors and staff, I would like to wish you all a very

wonderful Christmas and happy New Year, and look forward to seeing many of you again

next year.

> Paul Finglas, President EuroFIR AISBL

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MRC Human Nutrition Research (UK)

MRC Human Nutrition Research is housed in the Elsie Widdowson Laboratory (named after

Dr Elsie Widdowson, a pioneer of nutrition science) in Cambridge UK. HNR leads research

and surveys to improve the health of the population with a focus on cardiometabolic risk

and obesity, musculoskeletal health, intestinal function and nutritional vulnerabilities. HNR

provides important inputs to highly strategic policy and public health relevant research and

surveillance programmes including the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling

Programme (NDNS RP). HNR is also one of the partners of European Union-FP7 Project,

ODIN (FP7-613977), Food-based solutions for optimal vitamin D nutrition and health

through the life cycle. For more information visit www.mrc-hnr.cam.ac.uk

ASSOCIATION NEWS: Introducing new EuroFIR AISBL Members

National R&D Institute for Food Bioresources (IBA, RO)

National R&D Institute for Food Bioresources works with the Romanian Ministry of National

Education. Their main interests are food safety, preservation, packaging and authenticity;

food nutritional research, as related to food intolerance and celiac disease and phenylke-

tonuria; food biotechnologies and consumer science; and ageing, obesity, diabetes, CVD

and osteoporosis. For more information visit www.bioresurse.ro/_english_/

04

8th PortFIR Annual Meeting

Quality of Food Information: An ingredient of your diet, the 8th PortFIR Annual Meeting, was

held on 30th October 2015 in Lisbon (PT). 120 participants representing PortFIR networks,

laboratories, scientific and academic communities, food regulators and inspectors, health

professionals, food producers, and retailers attended the event.

EuroFIR AISBL participated with an oral communication on tools for food data quality and

management, presented by Carlos Ramos. Hilde Kruse, Manager of the Food Security

Programme of the World Health Organization Europe, presented the WHO’s perspective

about the food safety challenges.

Other topics addressed in the meeting were launch of the PortFIR website test version,

update of the Portuguese Food Composition Database, data quality in the management of

food information in PortFIR (insa.foodcase.ch) and SyncPT (syncpt.gs1pt.org/PortalGS1)

platforms, results and future perspectives of the PortFIR Networks, and the translation of

the WHO Manual “Five keys to growing safer fruits and vegetables: promoting health by

decreasing microbial contamination” into Portuguese (http://bit.ly/1NwRAX6).

The new version of the Portuguese Food Composition Database is available on the new

PortFIR website (insa.foodcase.ch). The database was updated with new information for

four types of hams, and 318 recipes calculated with EuroFIR methodology (128 new recipes

were included and 190 already existing were recalculated). All energy values were recalcu-

lated according to Regulation 1169/2011.

The meeting was organised by the Food and Nutrition Department (DAN) at INSA in partner-

ship with GS1 Portugal. For more information visit http://bit.ly/1I8D7E0.

FAO INFOODS News

INFOODS is one of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) task forces. As

such, IUNS are frequently asked to summarise FAO INFOODS activities. FAO INFOODS have

decided these IUNS reports will now also be published on the INFOODS website. For more

information visit http://bit.ly/1P6FkPF.

New FAO INFOODS regional and sub-regional coordinators, and vice-coordinators have

been appointed. For more information visit http://bit.ly/1OvWfIT.

The INFOODS 2015 Success Story Awards are now available at http://bit.ly/1P6FoPB. This

award recognises significant achievements of individuals or groups in the implementation

of food composition activities, such as the Wageningen University Food Composition

Course for 30 years of unique international training in the production and use of food

composition data, which was awarded to Paul Hulshof and Fré Pepping (Wageningen

University, NL) and Paul Finglas (IFR - UK, EuroFIR AISBL - BE) earlier this year.

ASSOCIATION NEWS: Members’ news and updates

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ASSOCIATION NEWS: EuroFIR AISBL news and updates

Better Training Safer Food initiative (BTSF) – Call for tenders – Members can you help?

BTSF is a Commission initiative aimed at organising a Community (EU) training strategy in

the areas of food and feed law, animal and health welfare rules, and plant health rules. The

training is designed to keep staff of competent authorities of Member States involved in

official control activities up-to-date with all aspects of Community law in the areas speci-

fied, and ensure that controls are carried out in a more uniform, objective and adequate

manner in all Member States. For more information about BTSF visit http://bit.ly/1Npmhjf.

Several companies carry out the BTSF training and EuroFIR is interested in working with

Members on a collaborative bid. Topics for the training include organic farming, protected

designation schemes, plant health surveys, and enforcement in sanitary and phytosanitary

fields. Details of the specific calls for tender can be found at http://bit.ly/1mnVg6I.

Any interested Members should contact Dr Andy Bowles (Director) ABC Food Law (+44 1603

274486, andy.bowles@abcfoodlaw.co.uk, www.abcfoodlaw.co.uk) for further discussions.

Leaving the Office in Brussels: Vickà Versele (31st December 2015)

Vickà has been with EuroFIR AISBL for only a short time, but she has been busy and taken

full advantage of the opportunity to engage with the different projects meaning she has a

much better understanding of activities involved in EU-funded research. Vickà has enjoyed

the variety of tasks that come with working in a non-profit organisation, the people she has

met from different backgrounds, and attending consortium meetings and conferences,

where she has used the occasions to network and attract new members. Also, by contacting

and visiting schools with a dietitian education programme, she assisted in membership

recruitment.

Vickà worked mainly on PD_manager where she has been the main contact person and

responsible for on-going work in the PD nutrition study. She has helped assemble lists of

Italian and Greek food, recipes and dietary supplements composition databases, and daily

intake reference values for Italy and Greece.

Vickà also took over work on ODiN from Jelena Milešević and has updated the deliverables

based on the review undertaken by the European Commission. Finally, in preparation for

the launch of RICHFIELDS, she has created a list of stakeholders identifying and categoris-

ing industry, research and technology stakeholders including umbrella organisations

relevant to the project. She has combined this work with other tasks for the Secretariat and

the support of colleagues. Working as a research associate for EuroFIR has provided for

Vickà both an interesting and intellectually challenging job with practical and communica-

tion components, and she enjoyed the team and the encouraging atmosphere in the

EuroFIR Office.

06

Joining the Office in Brussels: Introducing Angelika Mantur

Angelika joined EuroFIR in November 2015 as Research

Associate. She is supporting on-going and new EU-fund-

ed projects on food and health, and assisting with

membership recruitment and training.

Angelika studied Dietetics at the Medical University of

Bialystok, Poland, where she obtained her Masters in

June 2013. Before joining EuroFIR, she worked as a

dietitian at a fitness club, MedFitness, where she

provided nutrition advice. She has participated in many

medical and fitness conferences and tradeshows,

presenting body composition analysers and performing

the body composition analysis. She also took part in the Keep the Balance project, organ-

ised by the Polish Dieticians Association and National Food and Nutrition Institute.

EuroFIR 11th IFDC Post-Conference Workshop

EuroFIR AISBL organised a post-conference workshop (EuroFIR data and tools, and their

application in food and nutrition research) on 6th November 2015 in Hyderabad (IN). Partic-

ipants came mainly from Asian and Oceanian countries, and the workshop was chaired by

Paul Finglas. Carlos Ramos (EuroFIR AISBL) gave a presentation about the EuroFIR Food

Exchange Platform data and tools, Karl Presser (ETH, CH) introduced FoodCASE for the

management and publication of food composition data, and its application to total diet

studies, and Maria Glibetic (IMR, RS) presented the role of food data in the Balkan Food

Platform for dietary intake assessment in the Western Balkan Countries.

New EuroFIR Dietary Assessment Working Group

Dietary assessment requires high quality food data. The new dietary assessment WG will

focus on innovation and enhancements of food composition data to be used in dietary

intake through the development of novel tools and provision of expert guidance. Dietary

intake assessment is one of the most common uses of food composition tables and drives

selection of foods included in these tables as well as tools and services. Dietary assess-

ment, whether evaluating adequacy or safety, or as part of personalised dietary services,

requires monitoring of dietary patterns. Amounts of foods consumed are associated with

composition via coded food items (1). Thus, food description is critical because it needs to

be sufficiently detailed (e.g. LanguaL, www.langual.org) and integrate with, for example,

FoodEx2 system (2). The WG will tackle specific issues to ensure food recording is user-

friendly without loss of crucuial detail. The new WG will be led by Maria Glibetic (IMR, RS),

supported by Aida Turrini (CREA, IT).

1. Leclercq, Valsta & Turrini (2001): Food composition issues – Implications for the development of

food-based dietary guidelines. Public Health Nutrition 4(2B): pp. 677-682

2. European Food Safety Authority (2011) Evaluation of the FoodEx, the food classification system

applied to the development of the Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database. EFSA

Journal 9 (3): 1970.http://bit.ly/1P8H1fI

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The best fare for your airline ticket!

We are pleased to announce that Air France

KLM is the official carrier for the EuroFIR

Food Forum 2016. Attractive discounts on a

wide range of fares on all Air France and

KLM flights worldwide.

Event ID Code for the booking is 26940AF

For more details visit http://bit.ly/1lPHmug

Join us in Brussels at our EuroFIR Food Forum 2016!

EuroFIR Food Forum 2016 will take place in Brussels from Monday 4th April to Friday 8th

April 2016, and will focus on health claims and food labelling laws in the European Union.

The EuroFIR Food Forum 2016 will include:

Day 1-2: Monday 4th-Tuesday 5th April 2016BACCHUS Health Claims Workshop: A two-day training that will help participants to better

understand the EFSA claim applications and decison-making processes.

Day 3: Wednesday 6th April 2016 The EuroFIR Food Symposium 2016 will focus on the latest European regulatory actions on

food safety and labelling, and delegates will have the opportunity to learn more about EU

laws on food labelling and their impact on consumers and the food industry.

• Tim Gumbel, Deputy Head of Unit on Nutrition, food composition and information, DG

SANTE, European Commission (BE) -“EU food information rules: Recent developments”

• Roland Poms, Secretary General of MoniQA Association (AT) - “Assuring safe choices

for allergic consumers”

• Igor Pravst and Anita Kušar, Nutrition Institute (SI) - “The use of nutrition and health

claims and symbols on prepacked foods: From consumers exposure to public health

implications”

• Loek Pijls, Loekintofood (BE) - “The impact of new health claims and food labelling

regulation on the food industry and future innovation potential”

• Judy Buttriss, Director General, British Nutrition Foundation (UK) - “Health claims

regulation: Opportunities and challenges in Europe – examples from BACCHUS”

• Sophie Hieke, EUFIC (BE) - “Measuring the effects of health claims and symbols:

Clymbol Methodological Toolbox”

More information is available at the EuroFIR Food Forum website: http://bit.ly/1k2zjII

In addition, EuroFIR is offering an opportunity to submit abstracts to our new Food Science Poster Competition. This is a great opportunity to share your research to our stakeholders!

The competition is open to any original scientific research providing it meets the required

format and can be classified under one of the four following topics:

• Food composition information, food packaging and labelling

• Nutrient profiling and health eating

• Characterising bioactive food compounds (in vitro and in vivo)

• Nutrition and/ or health claims

The deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday, 29th January 2016. Awards will be given

to four posters at the EuroFIR Food Symposium 2016. For details visit http://bit.ly/1T1GwoH.

Day 4: Thursday 7th April 2016 (new date) EuroFIR will offer training on value documentation for Full Member Compilers, and any

Member interested in food data. More information will be available soon.

Day 5: Friday 8th April 2016EuroFIR will host a RICHFIELDS workshop on food matching and dietary assessment (by

invitation only). More information will be made available soon.

08

Nubel 25th Anniversary Symposium

Recently, our Belgian compiler, Nubel, organised a symposium to

celebrate their 25th anniversary (27th October 2015, Brussels -

BE). The Belgian Federal Minister for Social Affairs and Public

Health, Maggie De Block, opened the symposium, and speakers

included Marc De Win (Chairman, Nubel Board of Management)

and John van Camp (Chairman, Nubel Scientific Board) who

offered an overview of Nubel over past years as well as future

activities and the challenges ahead. The first international invited

speaker was Paul Finglas who spoke about the contribution and

role of Nubel in a European context, and the purpose and scope

of a European Food Composition Research Infrastructure. Others included Prof. Hannelore

Daniel (Technical University Munich, DE) and Dr Galea Gauden (WHO, DK – remote presen-

tation) who presented a number of food, nutrition and health projects and the challenges in

addressing these issues from an international perspective. During the morning session,

four case studies from the Nubel tools user groups were discussed. In the afternoon, there

was a panel debate with speakers representing different interest groups, giving an over-

view of the societal role of Nubel today and in the future.

Overall, the symposium was a great opportunity to engage with one of our founding compil-

er Members on the continued importance of food composition tables. Nubel collects the

nutritional and scientific information about foods eaten by the Belgian population, and

manages the Belgian food composition database. They have also created an online diet

planner. Nubel has public partners, such as the Federal Public Service Health and Food

Chain Safety and Environment, and private sector partners (e.g. FEVIA, trade association for

the Belgian food industry, and the Farmers’ Union). Nubel contributes to the EuroFIR Food

Data Platform with Belgium values, development of the EuroFIR Quality Framework and

European Food Data Standards, and helped develop and test data quality systems and the

compiler “certification” schemes. For more information visit http://bit.ly/1UzwYSW

12th European Nutrition Conference, FENS 2015

Four years after the last conference in Madrid (ES), Berlin (DE) hosted this year’s Federation

of European Nutrition Societies’ (FENS) European Nutrition Conference (20th-23rd October),

bringing together researchers, the food industry and students from all over the world. The

theme of the conference was “Nutrition and health throughout life-cycle – Science for the

European consumer”. The scientific presentations, debates, and poster presentations

formed an impressive scientific programme in partnership with industry-sponsored satel-

lite symposia and forums. Prof. Walter C. Willett (Harvard, US) kicked-off this series of talks

with a global perspective, and plenary lectures, ranging from nutrition and health through-

out the life-cycle for children and adolescents to the elderly, guided participants through

the four days.

The scientific programme sessions centred around five major topics: (1) Food and nutrient

intake, dietary patterns, dietary guidelines; (2) Advances in dietary studies, methodology

and design; (3) Metabolic diversity; (4) Nutrition, public health, chronic diseases; and (5)

Food quality, food safety, sustainability, and consumer behaviour and policy.

09

One of the “Nutrition, public health, chronic diseases” ses-

sions was dedicated to QuaLiFY, which was chaired by Paul

Finglas who also gave a presentation on harmonised data and

knowledge rules to deliver personalised nutrition services; Ben

Van Ommen (TNO, NL) illustrated this further based on his own

experience. Barbara Korousic Seljak discussed how to connect to, and make use of, the

QuaLiFY Server Platform (Quisper), and Jo Goosens closed the session with a talk about cur-

rent and future scenarios for personalised nutrition services.

A first peek at RICHFIELDS (commenced 1st October 2015) was

shown during a “Food quality, food safety, sustainability,

consumer, behaviour and policy” session, also chaired by Paul

Finglas on food innovations where Krijn Poppe (LEI, NL) dis-

cussed novel food and health infrastructures in Europe.

More information on these two sessions can be found on pages

57 and 78, respectively, in the FENS Book of Abstracts http://bit.ly/1QME5qR

Quantify Life – Feed Yourself (QuaLiFY): Launch of Quisper, a revolutionary digital health platform

Quisper is a digital information platform providing scientifically validated nutrition and

health data and knowledge that enriches creation of marketable personalised nutrition and

lifestyle advice services. The purpose is to ensure the best use of our current understanding

of food, genes, and physical traits to design healthier diets tailored for individuals.

This revolutionary digital health platform was launched on Tuesday 8th December 2015 in

Leuven (BE) at the QuaLiFY final meeting.

Watch the video here http://bit.ly/1k2HzbC and visit Quisper at http://quisper.eu

EU-funded Projects: News and updates

10

H2020 projects: RICHFIELDS

EuroFIR AISBL is Work Package 3 Leader in RICHFIELDS, the

main aim of which is to ensure the research infrastructure

(RI) design is optimised for a range of users by building

and maintaining effective interaction with stakeholder

communities throughout the life of the project and beyond.

EuroFIR will be responsible for establishing a vibrant and active Stakeholder Platform to

engage with the project, and will be work proactively with stakeholders through a series of

related workshops, the outcomes of which will help guide RICHFIELDS activities.

Other activities will include contributions to Impact and Dissemination (WP2), Connecting

with related research infrastructures (WP9), Data integration and data management (WP10),

and Governance, ethics and final design (WP13), respectively. In order to fulfil all the tasks

and responsibilities, EuroFIR will be working closely with IFR, EUFIC and Wageningen

University as well as other partners. The project started with a kick-off meeting (3rd-4th

November 2015 - Scheveningen, NL), during which partners had a chance to discuss their

vision and expectations. The meeting reconfirmed the relevance of RICHFIELDS in the

current research and policy environment and the opportunity to build a RICHFIELDS

community fully engaged with the development of the consumer data RI.

For more information visit www.richfields.eu

Parkinson Disease Manager (PD_Manager)

The management of Parkinson’s Disease can be improved greatly by providing clinicians

with objective data about symptoms; data that are collected unobtrusively by the patient or

care-giver in more severe cases. PD_Manager objectives include modelling the behaviours

of users (patients, care-givers, and healthcare providers), educating these groups about the

management for symptoms, and providing unobtrusive, simple-in-use, co-operative, mobile

devices for monitoring symptoms and collecting adherence data. Based on these activities,

PD Manager aims to build and evaluate an innovative, mhealth, patient-centric, ecosystem

for management of Parkinson’s disease.

EuroFIR AISBL is a sub-contractor for the Jozsef Stefan Institute (JSI, SI) in the optimisation

of nutrition for individuals with Parkinson’s disease. EuroFIR will provide food composition

data for branded foods, recipes and dietary country-specific recommendations. A mobile

app with evidence-based dietary support for those with Parkinson’s disease will be

developed for use in Slovenia, Italy and Greece.

EuroFIR AISBL will also support further development of the Open Platform for Clinical

Nutrition to which the mobile app will be linked.

For more information visit www.parkinson-manager.eu

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During the first two years of this four-year project, ODiN has focused on generating: (1)

much needed data describing the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Europe, (2) new

evidence to set dietary requirements for vitamin D in pregnant women, children, adoles-

cents and ethnic adults, and (3) modelled estimates of vitamin D intake and status resulting

from changes in vitamin D in the food supply accounting for diversity across the wide

European latitude (ca. 34-70 degrees north), sun exposure and dietary habits. In the next

24 months, ODiN will provide food-based strategies to eradicate vitamin D deficiency,

clarity on the association between vitamin D and health, and translation of ODiN outcomes

for industry and regulatory stakeholders, medical and scientific communities and citizens.

In ODiN, EuroFIR has been responsible for estimation of dietary exposure to vitamin D in

European populations, and has collected the best quality information available in Europe

and globally for vitamin D, which will be used as a basis for any dietary assessment, model-

ling and planning for fortification strategies to combat vitamin D deficiency in Europe, e.g.

we already know some populations are not getting as much vitamin D as they should to

ensure optimal health. The first report on specialised vitamin D dataset was submitted to

the European Commission in July 2014. EuroFIR will continue to update this dataset whilst

other members of WP2 undertake follow-up tasks.

For more information visit www.odin-vitd.eu

Integrated Approaches to Food Allergen and Allergy Risk Management

iFAAM will produce a standardised food allergen management process for manufacturing

companies. It will also develop tools designed to enforce regulations, and produce

evidence-based knowledge to inform new health advice on nutrition for pregnant women,

babies and those with food allergies. One objective of iFAAM is to assess the influence of

maternal and infant feeding practices on patterns and prevalence of allergies across

Europe. Together with University College Cork (IE), EuroFIR is describing the maternal diet

and early infant feeding from the EuroPrevall multicentre and the Cork BASELINE birth

cohorts (Task 1.4). Dietary information collected by EuroPrevall and BASELINE has been

consolidated in a standardised dataset to characterise food consumption during (a)

pregnancy and (b) the first 12 months of life. Using LanguaL, a consistently indexed dataset

describing food consumption during these periods has been achieved. Now, the indexed

dataset will be used to assess the role of early life nutrition (beneficial and risk-related) in

food allergy amongst children.

For more information visit http://bit.ly/1GJ1Qhd

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Preventive Care Infrastructure based On Ubiquitous Sensing – PRECIOUS

PRECIOUS is looking ahead to its third year. Year 1 was about building a solid understand-

ing of user needs and likely usage whilst during Year 2 the focus was on leveraging knowl-

edge to build PRECIOUS behavioural intervention tools and services that meet and, prefera-

bly, exceed user expectations in supporting healthy choices and motivating positive

lifestyle changes. The second year has been both exciting and very demanding in terms of

development and implementation of the PRECIOUS founding concepts, and partners have

developed motivational aspects, gamification, innovative sensing and monitoring mecha-

nisms. A full list of deliverables and achievements can be found at www.thepreciouspro-

ject.eu. In 2015, Carlos Ramos represented PRECIOUS at events as diverse as at the Digital

Health and Care Congress 2015, EFAD 2015 and the 5th International MoniQA Conference.

EuroFIR AISBL is supporting the PRECIOUS system with relevant food composition data as

well as food descriptions via our webservices.

Total Diet Study Exposure – TDS-Exposure

Thank you and goodbye! TDS-Exposure project is reaching its end. Research activities have

provided new insights in the determinants of dietary exposure to chemical contaminants

that will contribute to risk assessment and management of chemicals in food. This project

has built a complete toolbox from standard operating procedures to statistical modeling

software and e-learning tools for those in Europe and elsehwere who want to plan a total

diet study using a harmonised approach. A EU network has been set up using these

harmonised and cost-effective methods, and it is now possible to compare dietary chemical

exposure between countries to better protect the EU population. New national TDS are on

the way in Europe. Fruitful interaction with stakeholders has enlarged this network and the

work will continued in another context although this still needs to be defined with the help

of DG RESEARCH, DG SANTE, EFSA and others. I woudl like to thank all the participants and

partners for their strong commitment to the success of the project, and wish all exciting new

research projects that will continue to develop the EU Total Diet Study community.

Jean-Luc Volatier (ANSES, FR)

Final TDS-Exposure Meeting: 14th January 2016, Paris (FR)

The objective of this, the final General Assembly, is to share the results from TDS-Exposure

across the consortium, and to conclude four years of very productive work. Please join us at

ANSES, rue Pierre et Marie Curie 14, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, FRANCE (09.00-17.30).

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> Newsletter from EuroFIR Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif

Quality Assurance of Compilers’ FCDBHedwig Beernaert, Consultant and expert in quality systems, EuroQAM Ltd. On the 10th of

January 2005, the first Scientific Network Management Board (SMB) Meeting for EuroFIR

NoE was organised in Delft (NL). One of the important aims of this project was the creation

of a network platform for compilers of Food Composition Databases (FCDB) with the inten-

tion of exchanging data information on food composition between members of the network.

The purpose of the FCDBs platform managed by EuroFIR is to deliver information on nutri-

ents to different actors, such as industry, government, health professions, dietitians,

research community, schools and consumers. Each of these actors has specific reasons for

consulting FCDBs.

Data included in the FCDBs have been obtained from accredited and non-accredited labora-

tories, peer-review scientific articles and recipe calculations. The question is to which

extent these data are reliable. In this context, EuroFIR experts verified the processes of

compiler organisations by carring out audits in 2011. The review of food composition activi-

ties at the different compiler organisations and the outcome reported have been a very

useful tool for understanding and improving compilers’ quality systems. The use and

follow-up of standards and guidelines produced by EuroFIR are basic elements for compil-

ers to work towards a harmonised quality system underpinned by processes, procedures

and traceability of raw data.

The origin, validity and reliability of food composition data are the core of the FCDBs and

the EuroFIR platform, and they are important because they are used for political and indus-

trial decision-making, labelling, toxicological and epidemiological studies and educational

purposes. Thus, it is absolutely necessary that qualified personnel execute methods and

sampling following instructions in the different European directives and regulations. The

compilers have to ensure that they can identify and understand the information provided. A

more critical point is that compilers can lack of knowledge concerning the understanding of

validation of analytical methods used for the delivery of data.

With regard to the validation of analytical methods two types should be distinguished:

1. Use of standardised methods: institutions delivering the data should prove they

manage the quality criteria required by the standardised method and

2. Use of in-house developed methods: methods should be validated including the

investigation of the validation parameters selectivity, linearity, detection and

quantification limit, accuracy, precision, recovery, applicability, robustness and

measurement uncertainty

The latter (uncertainty) is extremely important to ensure the acceptability of the result. In

both cases, use of control samples and participation at proficiency tests are a conditio sine qua non for the suppliers of data to proof the quality of system and data. In many cases, it

is difficult for compilers to take responsibility for the data provided and the FCDB if the

above requirements are not available and understood by the compiler. Thus, it is recom-

mended that compilers be trained on sampling information and validation of analytical

methods.

EuroFIR AISBL 40 Rue Washington 1050 Brussels Belgium

Telephone: +32 26 26 29 01

Numero d’entreprise: 811.804.183

VAT: BE0811.804.183

For further general information, please contact: secretariat@eurofir.org

For technical and membership enquiries, please contact Carlos Ramos: carlos.ramos@eurofir.org

www.eurofir.org

@EuroFIRAISBL www.linkedin.com/company/eurofir-aisbl

www.facebook.com/Eurofir

January 2016

> TDS-Exposure Final Meeting (Paris, FR)

Date: 14th January 2016

March 2016

> 30th Anniversary ILSI | 2016 Annual

Symposium, 9-10th March 2016

April 2016

> EuroFIR Food Forum 2016 (Brussels, BE)

Date: 4-8th April 2016