BACKGROUND/ OBJECTIVES: The overall objective of the European Food Consumption Validation (EFCOVAL) Project was to further develop and validate a trans-European food consumption method to be used for the evaluation of the intake of foods, nutrients and potentially hazardous chemicals within the European population. SUBJECTS/ METHODS: The EFCOVAL Project was carried out by 13 institutes from 11 European countries. The main activities were centered on the three main objectives of the project organized in different sub-projects. RESULTS: In EFCOVAL, EPIC-Soft (the software developed to conduct 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDRs) in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study) was reprogrammed and adapted according to prioritized specifications, resulting in a software program working under the Windows operating system. In parallel of the EPIC-Soft development, the repeated 24-HDR method using EPIC-Soft and a food propensity questionnaire was evaluated against biomarkers in 24-h urine collections and in blood samples among adults from Belgium, the Czech Republic, (the South of) France, the Netherlands and Norway. As a result from an expert workshop on a proposed dietary assessment method for children (4-12 years), the suggested method was tested in a feasibility study in Denmark and Spain among children of 4-5, 7-8 and 12-13 years. To ensure that collected data had sufficient detail in food description for the assessment of additives and contaminants to foods the EPIC-Soft databases were adapted. Finally, the EFCOVAL Consortium developed a statistical tool (Multiple Source Method) for estimating the usual intake and distribution, which has been tested using real food consumption data and compared with three other statistical methods through a simulation study. In addition, a methodology was developed to quantify uncertainty due to portion-size estimation in usual intake distributions. CONCLUSION: The findings of EFCOVAL provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the repeated 24-HDR using EPIC-Soft for standardization in combination with a food propensity questionnaire and modeling of usual intake is a suitable method for pan-European surveillance of nutritional adequacy and food safety among healthy adults and maybe in children aged 7 years and older.
BACKGROUND/ OBJECTIVES: The overall objective of the European Food Consumption Validation (EFCOVAL) Project was to further develop and validate a trans-European food consumption method to be used for the evaluation of the intake of foods, nutrients and potentially hazardous chemicals within the European population. SUBJECTS/ METHODS: The EFCOVAL Project was carried out by 13 institutes from 11 European countries. The main activities were centered on the three main objectives of the project organized in different sub-projects. RESULTS: In EFCOVAL, EPIC-Soft (the software developed to conduct 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDRs) in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study) was reprogrammed and adapted according to prioritized specifications, resulting in a software program working under the Windows operating system. In parallel of the EPIC-Soft development, the repeated 24-HDR method using EPIC-Soft and a food propensity questionnaire was evaluated against biomarkers in 24-h urine collections and in blood samples among adults from Belgium, the Czech Republic, (the South of) France, the Netherlands and Norway. As a result from an expert workshop on a proposed dietary assessment method for children (4-12 years), the suggested method was tested in a feasibility study in Denmark and Spain among children of 4-5, 7-8 and 12-13 years. To ensure that collected data had sufficient detail in food description for the assessment of additives and contaminants to foods the EPIC-Soft databases were adapted. Finally, the EFCOVAL Consortium developed a statistical tool (Multiple Source Method) for estimating the usual intake and distribution, which has been tested using real food consumption data and compared with three other statistical methods through a simulation study. In addition, a methodology was developed to quantify uncertainty due to portion-size estimation in usual intake distributions. CONCLUSION: The findings of EFCOVAL provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the repeated 24-HDR using EPIC-Soft for standardization in combination with a food propensity questionnaire and modeling of usual intake is a suitable method for pan-European surveillance of nutritional adequacy and food safety among healthy adults and maybe in children aged 7 years and older.
Authors: Sandra P Crispim; Anouk Geelen; Jeanne H M de Vries; Heinz Freisling; Olga W Souverein; Paul J M Hulshof; Marga C Ocke; Hendriek Boshuizen; Lene F Andersen; Jiri Ruprich; Willem De Keyzer; Willem De Keizer; Inge Huybrechts; Lionel Lafay; Maria S de Magistris; Fulvio Ricceri; Rosario Tumino; Vittorio Krogh; H Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita; Joline W J Beulens; Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault; Androniki Naska; Francesca L Crowe; Heiner Boeing; Alison McTaggart; Rudolf Kaaks; Pieter Van't Veer; Nadia Slimani Journal: Eur J Nutr Date: 2011-12-06 Impact factor: 5.614
Authors: Denes Stefler; Andrzej Pajak; Sofia Malyutina; Ruzena Kubinova; Martin Bobak; Eric J Brunner Journal: Eur J Public Health Date: 2015-12-04 Impact factor: 3.367
Authors: Agneta Hörnell; Christina Berg; Elisabet Forsum; Christel Larsson; Emily Sonestedt; Agneta Åkesson; Carl Lachat; Dana Hawwash; Patrick Kolsteren; Graham Byrnes; Willem De Keyzer; John Van Camp; Janet E Cade; Darren C Greenwood; Nadia Slimani; Myriam Cevallos; Matthias Egger; Inge Huybrechts; Elisabet Wirfält Journal: Adv Nutr Date: 2017-09-15 Impact factor: 8.701