SAFEFOODNET : a survey on the activities related to diet definition in new member countries and associated countries of the European Union

The SAFEFOODNET project (Chemical Food Safety Network for the enlarging Europe) has as primary objectives the harmonisation and integration of Associated Candidate Countries (ACC) and New Member States (NMS) infrastructures and activities in the field of chemical food safety with those of Member States (MS). SAFEFOODNET consortium has 20 partners from 17 countries, which include 4 MS (Italy, Denmark, Germany and Belgium), 10 NMS (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus), and 3 ACC (Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey). The structure of the general work plan has been broken down into 5 work packages to respond in a practical way to the SAFEFOODNET proposed objectives. Regarding the possibilities for dietary assessment, individual country profiles assemble information with respect to the identification of existing resources, organisational features, data sources and availability, with a view of establishing a “standard diet” (according for instance to the indications of GEMS/FOOD of WHO) and consumption patterns. In order to retrieve and collect the information available in the field of dietary intake for each country, a questionnaire on diet was prepared. The questionnaire was divided in two parts: the first one regarding the institutions involved in the assessment of food consumption through performance of food intake surveys at national level, participation in relevant international projects, creation and maintenance of databases, or any other activity in the field of diet definition. The second part was focused at collecting further details on the individual surveys performed, such as type, methodology, population involved, availability and form of data acquired, as well as the suitability of the data to be used for acute intake estimates. The data are still being elaborated however some local specificities can be observed.