Building capacity in risk-benefit assessment of foods: Lessons learned from the RB4EU project

Assunção, Ricardo; Alvito, Paula; Brazão, Roberto; Carmona, Paulo; Fernandes, Paulo M.; Jakobsen, Lea Sletting; Lopes, Carla; Martins, Carla; Membré, Jeanne‐Marie; Monteiro, Sarogini; Nabais, Pedro; Thomsen, Sofie Theresa; Torres, Duarte; Viegas, Silvia; Pires, Sara Monteiro; Boué, Géraldine

doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2019.07.028

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Figure 3. Flowchart of RBA stepwise approach followed under RiskBenefit4EU activities (adapted from (Assunção et al, 2019;Boué, 2017 The present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). In accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, this task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a grant agreement between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s).…”

Section: Health Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen Risk‐Benefit Assessment within the EU using a holistic approach

Alvito

Brazão

Carmona³

et al. 2019

EFSA Supporting Publications

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“RiskBenefit4EU ‐ Partnering to strengthen the risk‐benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach” was a knowledge transfer project funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that integrated a multidisciplinary team from Portugal, Denmark and France. This project aimed to strengthen the EU capacity to assess risks and benefits associated with human food consumption, considering the fields of toxicology, microbiology and nutrition. To train the recipient partners from Portugal on Risk‐Benefit Assessment (RBA), a capacity‐building program was implemented, including three main activities: theoretical training on RBA concepts; hands‐on training applying concepts to a case‐study using methods and tools displayed; and scientific missions to provide advanced training in specific domains of RBA. The developed RBA strategy was applied to a case study focusing on the RBAof the consumption of cereal‐based products by Portuguese young children. Risks due to aflatoxins, Bacillus cereus, sodium and free sugars, were evaluated, as well as the benefit of fibreintake. Five different scenarios of infant cereals and/or breakfast cereals consumption were considered, and the assessment showed that moving from the current consumption to the considered alternative scenarios wouldresult in a gain of healthy‐life years. The RiskBenefit4EU project applied a collaborative method to train a new team to perform RBAs of foods and face the challenge of cooperation between experts from different disciplines. During the process of capacity building, a movement from conceptual knowledge towards action was an essential step to effectively increase performance. The developed framework facilitated the case‐study accomplishment and contributed to build a shared and harmonized RBA approach and culture. The suggested strategy can now be re‐used to capacitate other teams in RBA,and can be considered as a basis to build upon.

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Section: Health Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scientific expertise using data from different domains, using different methods to promote the development of new knowledge on risk-benefit assessment(Assunção et al, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen Risk‐Benefit Assessment within the EU using a holistic approach

Alvito

Brazão

Carmona³

et al. 2019

EFSA Supporting Publications

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“…RBA in the field of food and nutrition is an emerging decision-support tool that aims to evaluate risks and benefits in a harmonised approach in order to estimate the overall health impact of exposure (or lack of exposure) to a particular food, food component, and diet, as well as the substitution of one food item by another (Nauta et al, 2018;Membré et al, 2021). Towards this goal, RBA integrates knowledge on nutrition, toxicology, microbiology, chemistry and epidemiology for comprehensive health impact assessments (Assunção et al, 2019;Boué et al, 2015;Pires et al, 2019). The holistic approach that a RBA can offer could be a useful supplement to the existing safety evaluation standards and its' integration into assessment methods will advance future risk assessments (Verhagen et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel foods as red meat replacers – an insight using Risk Benefit Assessment methods (the NovRBA project)

Naska

Ververis

Niforou

et al. 2022

EFSA Supporting Publications

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The project entitled "Novel foods as red meat replacers -an insight using Risk Benefit Assessment methods (NovRBA)" aimed to develop and test harmonised Risk Benefit Assessment (RBA) methods to estimate the overall health impact of replacing red meat with an edible insect species (a novel food). Based on an appraisal of insect products that are more likely to be consumed in Europe, project participants decided to compare the consumption of a beef patty consisting of 100% minced beef meat (reference scenario) with a patty in which beef meat would be fully replaced by an edible insect dough (alternative scenario). The target population was adults. The RBA steps included the problem definition, the identification, prioritization and selection of components together with associated health outcomes. The assessment included the selection of doseresponse relationships based on their internal validity (hazard characterisation) and an exposure assessment of nutrient intake and exposures to microbiological hazards and compounds of toxicological concern associated with the reference and alternative scenarios. All health outcomes were quantified according to the disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) composite metric. The project standardised the pivotal step of selecting model components through developing a tiered approach to prioritise components establishing the "long", the "short" and the "final" list. The final list comprised thirteen nutrients, two heat-resistant spore-forming bacteria and inorganic arsenic. The RBA model was developed using @Risk® add-in software using Monte Carlo simulations considering variability and/or uncertainty. Overall the expected change in DALYs when moving from the reference scenario to the alternative one was estimated to be around 8,753 DALYs (per 100,000 population) saved in Greece, 6,572 DALYs in Denmark and 21,972 DALYs in France. This is mainly due to the overall beneficial nutritional and microbiological impacts. The proposed actions to communicate the project's findings can be summarised in providing understandable scientific evidence to policy makers; creating opportunities for consumers to engage in-depth with information about insect consumption; making use of multipliers who enjoy a high level of trust and establishing informational exchange with trusted sources.

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“…Risk-benefit assessment (RBA) of foods aims to assess the combined adverse and beneficial health effects associated with foods. RBA integrates chemical, microbiological and nutritional risk and benefit assessments [26][27][28][29] and is used to inform food safety and public health strategies, including updating dietary advice [30]. "RiskBenefit for EU-Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach" (RB4EU) was a knowledge translation project funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which gathered a multidisciplinary team and developed a framework for capacity building in RBA through case studies [26,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk-Benefit Assessment of Cereal-Based Foods Consumed by Portuguese Children Aged 6 to 36 Months—A Case Study under the RiskBenefit4EU Project

et al. 2021

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Cereal-based foods, including breakfast (BC) and infant cereals (IC), are among the first solid foods introduced to infants. BC and IC are sources of macro and micronutrients that have beneficial effects on health, but can also be sources of harmful chemical and microbiological contaminants and nutrients that may lead to adverse health effects at high consumption levels. This study was performed under the RiskBenefit4EU project with the aim of assessing the health impact associated with consumption of BC and IC by Portuguese children under 35 months. Adverse effects associated with the presence of aflatoxins, Bacillus cereus, sodium and free sugars were assessed against the benefits of fiber intake. We applied a risk–benefit assessment approach, and quantified the health impact of changes in consumption of BC and IC from current to various alternative consumption scenarios. Health impact was assessed in terms of disability-adjusted life years. Results showed that moving from the current consumption scenario to considered alternative scenarios results in a gain of healthy life years. Portuguese children can benefit from exchanging intake of IC to BC, if the BC consumed has an adequate nutritional profile in terms of fiber, sodium and free sugars, with levels of aflatoxins reduced as much as possible.

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Building capacity in risk-benefit assessment of foods: Lessons learned from the RB4EU project

Cited by 16 publications

References 33 publications

RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen Risk‐Benefit Assessment within the EU using a holistic approach

RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen Risk‐Benefit Assessment within the EU using a holistic approach

Novel foods as red meat replacers – an insight using Risk Benefit Assessment methods (the NovRBA project)

Risk-Benefit Assessment of Cereal-Based Foods Consumed by Portuguese Children Aged 6 to 36 Months—A Case Study under the RiskBenefit4EU Project

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