Preparation of Dutch food consumption data for risk assessment

The availability of detailed and high‐quality food consumption data collected at an individual level is essential for assessing the exposure to potential risks in the food chain. During the years 2012–2016, the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey was conducted in the Netherlands as part of the EU Menu survey, following the EFSA 2009 guidance on ‘General principles for the collection of national food consumption data in the view of a pan‐European dietary survey’. Complete results were obtained for 4,313 persons aged 1–79 years (response rate 65%). The work programme proposed to the European Food Risk Assessment (EU‐FORA) Fellow included FoodEx2 mapping of the Dutch food consumption data and preparing the final scientific report for EFSA as well as analysing habitual intake of nutrients using the SPADE programme. Further activities were added, such as performing a literature search as to the validity and usability of mobile applications for collecting food consumption data and exploring methods for estimating added‐sugar/free‐sugar intake.