The use of consumption data to assess exposure to biotechnology-derived foods and the feasibility of identifying effects on human health through post-market monitoring

The importance of harmonizing food composition data across Europe

OBJECTIVE

To examine the role of food composition data in Europe in four sectors, namely health, trade regulation and legislation, agriculture and the environment.

RESULTS

The need for further harmonization of data across Europe is clearly identified and evidenced from a number of previous successful European collaborations.

CONCLUSIONS

Data on the nutritional composition of foods are essential for a broad spectrum of activities, including public health nutrition, research, the food industry and government policy development and implementation. With the expansion of the European Union and the concomitant increase in cross border trade and cooperation harmonizing food composition data becomes a more important issue than ever. Harmonization is not solely a technical issue, but also involves creating durable and sustainable structures to maintain the viability of the data. These are some of the issues currently being addressed by the European Food Information Resource Network of Excellence.

Post Launch Monitoring of food products: what can be learned from pharmacovigilance

Post Launch Monitoring (PLM) is one of the new approaches that are used in assessing the safety of novel foods or ingredients. It shares a close resemblance with procedures applied in the field of medicines, where Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) has been carried out since the beginning of the 1960s. For this reason, Unilever and the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb, maintaining the national reporting scheme in the Netherlands for adverse drug reactions, have been working together to optimize the Unilever's Post Launch Monitoring service. As a result of this cooperation a practical model for conducting PLM for food products has been developed. This model is also applicable for consumer products in general. The system allows for coding and assessing reports and the early detection of 'signals' of unintended health reactions. The methodological issues surrounding reporting of possible health reactions and practical issues surrounding coding and assessment of the reports that were encountered in the first period of this partnership are discussed. In addition, similarities and differences concerning PMS and PLM are described.

Safety evaluation of phytosterol-esters. Part 9: Results of a European post-launch monitoring programme

Phytosterol-esters were developed by Unilever as a cholesterol lowering novel food ingredient for use initially in vegetable oil spreads. In addition to an extensive package of safety studies and clinical studies a programme of post-launch monitoring (PLM) was developed. PLM was used to address the following questions: (a) Is the product use as predicted/recommended? (b) Are the known effects as predicted? (c) Does the product cause unexpected health effects? The overall conclusions from the PLM programme were: the product is being bought by the target population but intakes are less than the original assumptions made in the risk assessment; long-term use of phytosterol-ester enriched spreads results in a reduction in the serum levels of the most lipophilic carotenoids but at current levels of intake this is unlikely to result in reductions in carotenoids that are of biological significance; evaluation of health related consumer complaints have not indicated any unexpected health effects associated with the use of the product in the marketplace. As part of the European approval under Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 on Novel Foods and Food Ingredients the results of the PLM programme had to be submitted to the European Commission (EC) and reviewed by the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF). They concluded that the study provided valuable information, which complemented the pre-market safety evaluation studies, and that the EC mandatory requirement had been met.

Health risks of dietary intake of environmental pollutants by elite sportsmen and sportswomen

The dietary intake of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (PCDEs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) by elite sportsmen and sportswomen of Catalonia, Spain, was assessed. In 2000, food samples were randomly acquired in various cities of Catalonia. Analysis of the above pollutants were determined according to the appropriate analytical techniques (ICP-MS, HRGC/HRMS, HPLC). In general terms, elite sportsmen and sportswomen showed a higher intake of Cd, Hg, Pb, HCB, PCNs, PCDD/Fs and PAHs than the general population, while it was lower for PCDEs (both sexes), and PCBs and PBDEs (women). According to the FAO/WHO provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) for metals, the WHO tolerable daily intake (TDI) for HCB, and the US EPA's reference dose (RfD) for PAHs, the dietary intakes of environmental pollutants should not mean a potential toxic hazard. However, the WHO-TDI for PCDD/Fs and "dioxin-like" PCBs is exceeded in sportsmen. The current results indicate that the consumption of those food groups showing the highest contribution to the intake of these pollutants should be diminished. In relation to this, the reduction of the consumption of dairy products and cereals would be important.