Total Diet Study: For a Closer-to-real Estimate of Dietary Exposure to Chemical Substances

Abstract

Recent amendment on the Food Sanitation Act in Korea mandated the Minister of Food & Drug Safety to secure the scientific basis for management and reevaluation of standards and specifications of foods. Especially because the current food safety control is limited within the scope of ‘Farm to Market’ covering from production to retail in Korea, safety control at the plane of true ‘Farm to Fork’ scope is urgently needed and should include ‘total diet’ of population instead of individual food items. Therefore, ‘Total Diet Study (TDS)’ which provides ‘closer-to-real’ estimates of exposure to hazardous materials through analysis on table-ready (cooked) samples of foods would be the solution to more comprehensive food safety management, as suggested by World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Although the protection of diets from hazards must be considered as one of the most essential public health functions of any country, we may need to revisit the value of foods which has been too much underrated by the meaningless amount of some hazardous materials in Korea. Considering the primary value of foods lies on sustaining life, growth, development, and health promotion of human being, food safety control should be handled not only by the presence or absence of hazardous materials but also by maximizing the value of foods via balancing with the preservation of beneficial components in foods embracing total diet. In this regard, this article aims to provide an overview on TDS by describing procedures involved except chemical analysis which is beyond our scope. Also, details on the ongoing TDS in Korea are provided as an example. Although TDS itself might not be of keen interest for most readers, it is the main user of the safety reference values resulted from toxicological research in the public health perspective.

Dietary intake of cadmium, chromium, copper, manganese, selenium and zinc in a Northern Italy community

“…National dietary surveys tend to provide information on average intakes of all dietary factors, including trace elements, of the whole country [21,30,31]. In the present study, we assessed both trace elements content in the specific foods distributed and consumed in a local community, as well as the dietary habits characterizing that community, to achieve an estimate of the average daily intake of the trace elements and their major dietary sources in a representative community of Northern Italy.…”

“…Moreover, additional relevant contribution from outdoor and indoor pollution was also pointed out for cadmium, manganese and selenium [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Being diet most relevant source of exposure to the above mentioned trace elements in non-occupationally exposed subjects, the systematic evaluation, the periodic and updated evaluation of their content in foods composing population diet is a key element for a comprehensive assessment of their intake levels and of possible consequent health risks [21].…”

Early-Life Dietary Cadmium Exposure and Kidney Function in 9-Year-Old Children from the PROGRESS Cohort

“…To estimate dietary Cd, we carried out a search of composition tables reporting Cd levels in food, based on the Total Diet Study (TDS) methodology, which consists of reporting concentrations of contaminants in food [ 18 ]. As Mexico lacks such tables, we used tables from the United States, The European Food Safety Authority, Australia, Hong Kong, and Canada.…”

Ultra-processed foods in public health nutrition: the unanswered questions

“…If sufficient data are available from local or national public analysts’ laboratories on the additive content of commercially produced foods, it is possible to compute exposure data (15) . However, given the decades-long consumer concern about food additives, a significant number of food additives currently in use are naturally occurring and estimates of exposure to a given food additive will be confounded by intakes of the chemical in question from natural sources (16) . In effect, the only reliable approach is to conduct total diet studies, specifically designed to target food additives.…”