Food, nutrition, and health are linked, and detailed knowledge of nutrient compositions and bioactive characteristics is needed to understand these relationships. Additionally, increasingly these data are required by database systems and applications. This communication aims to describe the contribution to databases and nutrition fields as well as the activities of EuroFIR AISBL; this member-based, non-profit association was founded to ensure sustained advocacy for food information in Europe and facilitate improved data quality, storage, and access as well as encouraging wider exploitation of food composition data for both research and commercial purposes. In addition to the description of its role and main objectives, a snapshot of EuroFIR AISBL’s activities over the years is also given using a quantitative research literature analysis approach. The focus of this communication is to provide descriptions and updates of EuroFIR’s online tools, i.e., FoodEXplorer, eBASIS, and PlantLIBRA, by highlighting the main uses and applications. Integrating food-related infrastructures and databases, following standardized and harmonized approaches, and considering interoperability and metrological principles are significant challenges. Ongoing activities and future plans of EuroFIR AISBL are highlighted, including, for instance, work within the Food Nutrition Security Cloud (FNS-Cloud) to make food, nutrition, and (food) security data more findable, accessible, interoperable, and ultimately reusable.

Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) for allergens exists in many different forms with different requirements placed on the risk assessor depending on the question that needs to be answered. An electronic workshop held in October 2020 and comprising representatives from a wide range of food allergy and allergen stakeholder groups identified that a summary of current best in class guidance, identified gaps, potential improvements & harmonization of allergen QRA arising largely from cross contact would be very beneficial. The current manuscript provides an introduction to allergen QRA and an overview of inputs potentially needed for different QRA methods, when deemed feasible and necessary. It also introduces the European branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI Europe) Expert Group (EG), created to attempt to achieve consensus on the methodologies needed for allergen QRAs by food business operators, and their implementation. Areas of focus include proactive assessments for food production under normal conditions, both in the upstream supply chain and in food production facilities, and reactive assessments as part of an allergen incident response. As a follow-up report to the October 2020 electronic workshop, the current manuscript provides an overview of allergen QRA and insights into the guidance being developed. This manuscript will itself be followed by more detailed guidance for allergen QRA published open access as an ILSI Europe report.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), widespread pathogens associated with severe foodborne disease, can contaminate milk during the milking process through faecal matter and survive or grow during cheese making if a pasteurization treatment has not been applied. Thus, a stochastic "farm-to-fork " model was developed to assess the risk of human infection by O157 STEC, one of the main pathogenic serotypes, associated with the consumption of a portion of raw sheep's milk cheese produced in a farmhouse dairy in Italy. The average risk of illness after the consumption of a portion of brief-, medium-and long-ripened cheese ranged between 1.64 x 10(-4) and 4.03 x 10(-4) for adults. Considering only a difference in serving size, the risk for children varied from 1.35 x 10(-4) to 3.34 x 10(-4). Among the several intervention strategies simulated to mitigate the risk, administration of bacteriophages was, by far, the most effective measure with an average risk reduction of 34 times followed by use of probiotics and antimicrobials, which lowered the risk about 12 times. The sensitivity analysis showed that the probability that a shedder is present in the herd, the occurrence of the milk contamination with faeces and the within-herd prevalence of the pathogen were the parameters that most affected the risk. While further data is necessary to confirm the conclusion of this study, the model results might be able to assist pro-ducers and policymakers to manage the risk of STEC infection linked to such products.

Curcuma longa (turmeric) has a long ethnomedical background for common ailments, and Dietary Supplements (DS) labelled as “Curcumin” (CDS) are a highly visible portion of today’s selfmedication market. Due to cost pressure, these CDS products are affected by economically motivated adulteration with synthetic curcumin and are associated with unexpected toxicological issues due to “residual” impurities. Using a combination of targeted and untargeted (phyto)chemical analysis, this study investigated the botanical integrity of two commercial “turmeric” CDS with vitamin and other additives that were associated with reported clinical cases of hepatotoxicity. Analyzing multi-solvent extracts of the CDS by 100% quantitative 1H NMR (qHNMR), alone and in combination with countercurrent separation (CCS), provided chemical fingerprints that allowed both the targeted identification and quantification of declared components and the untargeted recognition of adulteration. While confirming the presence of curcumin as a major constituent, the universal detection capability of NMR identified significant residual impurities. While the loss free nature of CCS captured a wide polarity range of declared and unwanted chemical components and increased dynamic range, (q)HNMR determined their mass proportions and chemical constitutions. The results demonstrate that NMR can recognize undeclared constituents even if they represent a relatively minor gap in the mass balance of a DS product. The chemical information associated with the missing 4.8% and 7.4% (m/m) in the two commercial samples, exhibiting an otherwise adequate curcumin content of 95.2% and 92.6%, pointed to a product integrity issue and adulteration with undeclared synthetic curcumin. Impurities from synthesis are most plausibly the cause of the observed adverse clinical effects. The study exemplifies how the simultaneously targeted and untargeted analytical principle of 100% qHNMR method, performed with entry-level instrumentation (400 MHz), can enhance the safety of DS by identifying adulterated, non-natural “natural” products

Food allergies have risen in prominence over the last 20–30 years and currently, as there is no accepted cure, individuals usually have to practice life-long avoidance of their problem food(s). There are many different types of food allergy and intolerance, but those involving the immune system are amongst the most important. This chapter focuses on the food labelling of allergens that seeks to protect those with immune-mediated allergies.

In the European Union, fats and oils in foods are regulated by laws mainly set at the Union level. EU rules on nutrition and health claims are particularly relevant for some fatty acids. Contrary to structure-function claims in the US, in the EU, such claims have to be authorized before use; in the case of omega-3, along with a nutrition claim, a remarkable number of health claims have been authorised based on the essentiality of such fatty acids. Claims related to environmental, social or ethical concerns are not regulated in detail at the EU level. While claims are voluntary information, mandatory rules on labelling also apply to fatty acids, and sometimes create challenges for food businesses. Another piece of legislation, the novel food regulation, is important for new sources of oils and fats. Its scope includes determining the novel food status of foods, and, if required, submitting an application in order to obtain authorisation. Several sources of fatty acids have been authorized as novel foods. Benefits of a novel food application include legal certainty and protection of data, while costs and particularly the length of the process are the main barriers. An assessment of novel food status should also concern new technologies, such as new delivery mechanisms. While several provisions of EU law concern oils and fats, a 2019 regulation not only imposes a 2 g limit (per 100 g of fat) for trans fats not naturally occurring in animal fats, but also creates an obligation to transfer information in the supply chain.

On May 10, 2019, the Italian Ministry of Health publicly announced that 4 cases of acute cholestatic non-viral hepatitis had been reported, and associated with the consumption of food supplements. Investigators suspected a causal association with curcumin obtained from turmeric (Curcuma longa L.). By July, 21 cases had been reported by health authorities, involving 22 different food supplements, mostly by Italian brands. A significant proportion of products also included piperine as ingredient; it has also been reported that several products were adulterated with synthetic curcumin, presented to consumers as natural. Few cases of acute non-viral hepatitis associated with curcumin had been reported in the US, Australia and, apparently, Japan. The aim of the presentation is to summarize available information on the case-series, and in the literature; to report on the risk assessment and risk management decisions in Italy, and being debated in other Member States; to reflect on early lessons, particularly in reference to adulteration. Surveillance bias may have contributed to the clustering of cases, but risks to individuals with liver or biliary disease or undergoing medicinal therapy could have been anticipated. Both authorities and industry have shown to be only partially prepared to investigate and address case-reports. While synthetic curcumin is not believed to be the cause of the case-series at this stage, its safety is untested, and its labeling not appropriate. In this case, authorities and industry have become aware of the challenge posed by adulteration, but struggle to respond in an effective and decisive manner.

One of the input parameters in food allergy risk assessment is the amount of a given food consumed at an eating occasion. There is no consensus on how to use food consumption data when assessing the risk from unintended allergen presence in food products. A sensitivity analysis was performed to establish the optimal food consumption estimate for a deterministic food allergy risk assessment. Exposure was calculated for consumption percentiles (50th percentile, P50 to maximum) using the iFAAM consumption database in conjunction with an allergen concentration range from 1 to 1000 ppm. The resulting allergen intakes were compared to the allergic population reference doses proposed by Taylor et al. (2014) for 10 major allergenic foods. Optimal consumption percentiles were defined as those which predicted an intake below the relevant reference dose and met the defined acceptable risk level confirmed by probabilistic risk assessments. Analysis showed that, for 99% of the food groups, the P50 consumption met our criteria, while the P75 did so for 100% of the food groups. We suggest that the P75 is the optimal point estimate for use in deterministic food allergy risk assessment. It meets the safety objective and is adequately conservative for a public health context.

Purpose: to compare several countries against many Mediterranean adherence indices, calculated by looking at 19 European Member States. The value of a population-level Mediterranean Diet Index, the Mediterranean Adequacy Index (P-MAI) is at the core of the analysis. Design/methodology/approach: the EFSA's Concise European Food Consumption Database (mean g/day/per capita) and the FAO-FBS dataset (grams and calories/day/per capita values) were used as the unique sources currently available, in order to derive a simple yet harmonised secondary-data framework, which could serve for policy analysis and policy making therein of. Findings: The adherence to a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern outlines a general rank correlation among countries, and a broader north-south divide within Europe. Scores remain relatively stable across time. Although there has been a decrease in Mediterranean adherence in southern Europe, some central and northern European regions have seen gains. Research limitations/implications: Several data gaps do not allow a full comparison across all the indices used (i.e., lack of foodstuff detail of key-foods of the Med diet). A further problem of Med-adherence indices is that it does not consider the overall caloric intake. Practical implications: The relatively low discriminatory power of the emerging clusters of countries, reflecting the national diets-limits their usefulness in terms of policy-making recommendations. Furthermore the indices used were originally built on first-hand data (i.e., cohort studies relying on real persons), and not on aggregated mean-median values at population level (secondary data). Social implications In a period in which the interest for the health outcomes of the Mediterranean diet is on the rise in terms of preventive medicine, the P-MAI is an interesting indicator due to its user-friendliness, which allows the classification of European countries' diets using food intake data. Originality/value: Mediterranean adherence indices may be useful as synthetic indicators for monitoring the evolution of diets and for identifying sub-regions with similar dietary patterns or changes. The P-MAI index in particular, due to its simplicity, may help to monitor the overall healthiness of national diets, and could help to inform subsequent nutrition policies, including emerging labelling provisions both at National and European level, in order to achieve public health targets (i.e., reduction of NCDs).

As part of a European Union-funded project (FP7) developing 'Integrated approaches to food allergen and allergy management', a database was constructed based on publicly available information on food allergen recalls in Europe, North America, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Over 2000 entries were made into the database. The database covers a 4-year period from 2011 to 2014 and each entry is categorised into food type (two different classifications), identified allergen and cause where indicated by the authorities. Across different authorities, by far the biggest incidence of undeclared allergens occurred in the food categories of prepared dishes and snacks (range = 12-53%), and cereals and bakery products (range = 14-25% of all recalls and/or alerts). The biggest incidence of undeclared allergens, according to the information from most authorities, occurred for milk and milk products (16-31% of all products with recall or alert), followed by cereals containing gluten (9-19%), soy (5-45%), and egg and egg products (5-17%). Although 42-90% of the products with recalls/alerts were explained as being 'Not indicated on the label', this is a generic explanation of cause and does not provide much insight into the causes of the recall/alerts. However, 0-17% of products with recalls/alerts could be coded as caused by the unintended presence of an allergen as the probable result of cross-contact in production. Construction of the database of allergen recalls has provided some important lessons and recommendations to the authorities are made in this paper in terms of the harmonisation of the reporting of allergen recalls into a more standardised format.

Semisoft cheese made from raw sheep's milk is traditionally and economically important in southern Europe. However, raw milk cheese is also a known vehicle of human listeriosis and contamination of sheep cheese with Listeria monocytogenes has been reported. In the present study, we have developed and applied a quantitative risk assessment model, based on available evidence and challenge testing, to estimate risk of invasive listeriosis due to consumption of an artisanal sheep cheese made with raw milk collected from a single flock in central Italy. In the model, contamination of milk may originate from the farm environment or from mastitic animals, with potential growth of the pathogen in bulk milk and during cheese ripening. Based on the 48-day challenge test of a local semisoft raw sheep's milk cheese we found limited growth only during the initial phase of ripening (24 hours) and no growth or limited decline during the following ripening period. In our simulation, in the baseline scenario, 2.2% of cheese servings are estimated to have at least 1 colony forming unit (CFU) per gram. Of these, 15.1% would be above the current E.U. limit of 100 CFU/g (5.2% would exceed 1,000 CFU/g). Risk of invasive listeriosis per random serving is estimated in the 10-12 range (mean) for healthy adults, and in the 10-10 range (mean) for vulnerable populations. When small flocks (10-36 animals) are combined with the presence of a sheep with undetected subclinical mastitis, risk of listeriosis increases and such flocks may represent a public health risk.

The newly developed ePlantLIBRA database is a comprehensive and searchable database, with up-to-date coherent and validated scientific information on plant food supplement (PFS) bioactive compounds, with putative health benefits as well as adverse effects, and contaminants and residues. It is the only web-based database available compiling peer reviewed publications and case studies on PFS. A user-friendly, efficient and flexible interface has been developed for searching, extracting, and exporting the data, including links to the original references. Data from over 570 publications have been quality evaluated and entered covering 70 PFS or their botanical ingredients.

Precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) was introduced by the food industry to help manage and communicate the possibility of reaction from the unintended presence of allergens in foods. However, in its current form, PAL is counterproductive for consumers with food allergies. This review aims to summarize the perspectives of all the key stakeholders (including clinicians, patients, food industry and regulators), with the aim of defining common health protection and risk minimization goals. The lack of agreed reference doses has resulted in inconsistent application of PAL by the food industry and in levels of contamination that prompt withdrawal action by enforcement officers. So there is a poor relationship between the presence or absence of PAL and actual reaction risk. This has led to a loss of trust in PAL, reducing the ability of consumers with food allergies to make informed choices. The result has been reduced avoidance, reduced quality of life and increased risk-taking by consumers who often ignore PAL. All contributing stakeholders agree that PAL must reflect actual risk. PAL should be transparent and consistent with rules underpinning decision-making process being communicated clearly to all stakeholders. The use of PAL should indicate the possible, unintended presence of an allergen in a consumed portion of a food product at or above any proposed action level. This will require combined work by all stakeholders to ensure everyone understands the approach and its limitations. Consumers with food allergy then need to be educated to undertake individualized risk assessments in relation to any PAL present.

The main aim of the EC-financed R&D project PlantLIBRA (PLANT food supplements: Levels of Intake, Benefit and Risk Assessment) is to foster the safe use of food supplements containing plants or botanical preparations, by enabling science-based decision making by regulators and stakeholders. To make informed decisions, competent authorities and industry need more accessible and quality-assured information, as well as better tools (e.g., databases) and procedures for safety and benefit assessments, supported by broadly accepted methodologies. Consequently, PlantLIBRA is working to develop, validate and disseminate data and methodologies for risk and benefit assessment of plant food supplements, and to implement sustainable international cooperation. International cooperation will help ensure the quality of botanicals imported in the EU. Moreover, the project will provide data on intake by conducting a harmonized consumption survey. Existing composition and safety data will be collated into a meta-database. New analytical data and methods will be investigated and validated. The consortium is working closely with competent authorities and stakeholders.

Background and Aims: The selection of water treatment methods may have considerable implications for the microbial and chemical quality and furthermore the safety of tap water consumed by over 500 million people in Europe alone. Disinfection by-products (DBPs), which are formed during disinfection treatment of drinking water, may cause serious adverse health effects when exposed to the them. Therefore there is a public health concern on the DBPs in drinking water. Methods: Disability adjusted life years (DALYs) were calculated for six European cities: Barcelona (Spain), Modena (Italy), Heraklion (Greece), Bradford (United Kingdom), and Kaunas (Lithuania). To estimate the risks of trihalomethas (THMs) due to tap water consumption via drinking, the risk was calculated for five different exposure scenarios including water filtering and different chlorination doses. Bladder cancer and small for gestational age (SGA) were selected to represent the adverse health outcomes of THMs in drinking water. The exposures from drinking water were calculated with Monte Carlo based modelling software Analytica by using Impact Calculation Tool, which was applied the population structure and growth estimates for each city. Results: Risk estimates show that highest DALYs of bladder cancer and SGA are in Barcelona and Bradford, where the exposure is also highest. Intermediate exposure with lower DALYs is found in Heraklion and Kaunas, and low exposure with low DALYs in Modena. Filtration of drinking water reduces the exposure and DALY estimates significantly. DALY estimates are strongly dependent on the water treatment type such as chlorine dose during disinfection in water treatment. Conclusions: Health risks associated with DBPs in drinking water can be significant public health burden when the exposure levels are high. Even EU's regulatory reference concentration 100 µg/L can result in alarmingly high morbidity and mortality rates, especially when using current THM levels exposure is underestimate of life-time exposures.