A systematic review of iodine intake in children, adults, and pregnant women in Europe-comparison against dietary recommendations and evaluation of dietary iodine sources.

Context: Adequate iodine intake is essential throughout life. Key dietary sources are iodized salt and animal products, but dietary patterns in Europe are changing, for example toward lower salt intake and a more plant-based diet.

Objective: To review iodine intake (not status) in European populations (adults, children, and pregnant women) to identify at-risk groups and dietary sources.

Potential Markers of Dietary Glycemic Exposures for Sustained Dietary Interventions in Populations without Diabetes.

There is considerable interest in dietary and other approaches to maintaining blood glucose concentrations within the normal range and minimizing exposure to postprandial hyperglycemic excursions. The accepted marker to evaluate the sustained maintenance of normal blood glucose concentrations is glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). However, although this is used in clinical practice to monitor glycemic control in patients with diabetes, it has a number of drawbacks as a marker of efficacy of dietary interventions that might beneficially affect glycemic control in people without diabetes.

Systematic review of the evidence for sustained efficacy of dietary interventions for reducing appetite or energy intake.

We assessed evidence for changes in efficacy of food-based interventions aimed at reducing appetite or energy intake (EI), and whether this could be used to provide guidance on trial design. A systematic search identified randomized controlled trials testing sustained efficacy of diets, foods, supplements or food ingredients on appetite and/or EI. Trials had to include sufficient exposure duration (≥3 days) with appetite and/or EI measured after both acute and repeated exposures.

Dietary carbohydrates: a review of international recommendations and the methods used to derive them.

Background/objectives: Renewed dietary recommendations for carbohydrates have recently been published by various international health authorities. The present work (1) reviews the methods and processes (systematic approach/review, inclusion of public consultation) used to identify, select and grade the evidence underpinning the recommendations, particularly for total carbohydrate (CHO), fibre and sugar consumption, and (2) examines the extent to which variation in the methods and processes applied relates to any differences in the final recommendations.

Subjects/methods: A search of WHO, US, Canada, Australia and European sources identified 19 documents from 13 authorities with the desired detailed information.

ILSI Europe's Food Allergy Task Force: From Defining the Hazard to Assessing the Risk from Food Allergens.

The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe Food Allergy Task Force was founded in response to early public concerns about the growing impact of food allergies almost coincidentally with the publication of the 1995 Food and Agriculture Organization-World Health Organization Technical Consultation on Food Allergies. In line with ILSI principles aimed to foster collaboration between stakeholders to promote consensus on science-based approaches to food safety and nutrition, the task force has played a central role since then in the development of risk assessment for food allergens. This ranged from consideration of the criteria to be applied to identifying allergens of public health concern through methodologies to determine the relationship between dose and the proportion of allergic individuals reacting, as well as the nature of the observed responses.

A review of the characteristics of dietary fibers relevant to appetite and energy intake outcomes in human intervention trials.

Many intervention studies have tested the effect of dietary fibers (DFs) on appetite-related outcomes, with inconsistent results. However, DFs comprise a wide range of compounds with diverse properties, and the specific contribution of these to appetite control is not well characterized. The influence of specific DF characteristics [i.

Impact of food processing and detoxification treatments on mycotoxin contamination.

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites commonly occurring in food, which pose a health risk to the consumer. Maximum levels for major mycotoxins allowed in food have been established worldwide. Good agricultural practices, plant disease management, and adequate storage conditions limit mycotoxin levels in the food chain yet do not eliminate mycotoxins completely.

Prioritisation of allergenic foods with respect to public health relevance: Report from an ILSI Europe Food Allergy Task Force Expert Group.

Regulators and risk managers in general need to decide whether an allergenic food or ingredient is of such public health importance that it needs to be actively managed. There is therefore a need to scale the relative allergenicity of foods and ingredients according to the hazards they pose. Objective criteria increase transparency and trust in this decision-making process and its conclusions.

Assessing and reporting uncertainties in dietary exposure analysis: Mapping of uncertainties in a tiered approach.

Uncertainty analysis is an important component of dietary exposure assessments in order to understand correctly the strength and limits of its results. Often, standard screening procedures are applied in a first step which results in conservative estimates. If through those screening procedures a potential exceedance of health-based guidance values is indicated, within the tiered approach more refined models are applied.

Food processing and allergenicity.

Food processing can have many beneficial effects. However, processing may also alter the allergenic properties of food proteins. A wide variety of processing methods is available and their use depends largely on the food to be processed.

Advances in the risk management of unintended presence of allergenic foods in manufactured food products--an overview.

Food allergy is a relatively recent newcomer to the ranks of food safety issues, only being effectively recognised as such in the last 25-30 years. This recognition, allied with the near impossibility of avoiding the unintended presence of small, yet potentially dangerous residues of allergenic constituents, brought with it the need to assess and manage the resulting risk. This paper provides an overview of the development and current knowledge and thinking on risk assessment and its application to risk management of food allergens.

Development and evolution of risk assessment for food allergens.

The need to assess the risk from food allergens derives directly from the need to manage effectively this food safety hazard. Work spanning the last two decades dispelled the initial thinking that food allergens were so unique that the risk they posed was not amenable to established risk assessment approaches and methodologies. Food allergens possess some unique characteristics, which make a simple safety assessment approach based on the establishment of absolute population thresholds inadequate.

Translating reference doses into allergen management practice: challenges for stakeholders.

Risk assessment describes the impact of a particular hazard as a function of dose and exposure. It forms the foundation of risk management and contributes to the overall decision-making process, but is not its endpoint. This paper outlines a risk analysis framework to underpin decision-making in the area of allergen cross-contact.