Coding NDNS Consumption data into EFSA’s food classification+description -FoodEx

As part of the FSA’s commitment to ensure food is safe and is what it says it is, the FSA undertakes food safety risk assessments which underpin these decisions in line with the internationally recognised ‘Codex Working Principles for Risk Analysis for Food Safety’. A key component of food safety risk assessment is exposure assessment, which estimates the amount of a hazard consumed through the diet.

Exposure assessment combines food consumption data with information on the concentrations of substances such as contaminants, food additives or pesticide residues in food to estimate the levels consumers may be exposed to. To conduct UK dietary exposure assessments, the FSA uses consumption data in combination with occurrence data for hazards and other substances in food.

UK consumption data is primarily obtained from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) is a co-funded programme between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and FSA.

NDNS is a rolling programme which assesses the diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general population of the UK. Tenders are invited to carry out the recoding of NDNS consumption data to FoodEx2, a standardised system for classifying and describing food.