RiskBenefit4EU: Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach

Coordinator

Paula Cristina Alvito

CESAM Responsible researcher

Paula Cristina Alvito

Programme

EFSA Partnering Grants

Dates

17/01/2018 - 17/10/2019

Total Funding

200000 €

Proponent Institution

Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Lisboa

URL / WWW

https://riskbenefit4eu.wordpress.com/

Human diet may present both potential risks and benefits to consumers. The balance between risk and benefit is of interest to food authorities developing food policy and consumer advice, to businesses developing new food products, and to consumers considering dietary changes. The risk-benefit assessment (RBA), a relatively new discipline, intends to estimate the benefits and risks for humans following exposure (or lack of exposure) to a particular food or food component and to integrate them in comparable measures. “RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach” aims to strengthen the EU capacity to assess and integrate food risks and benefits in the areas of microbiological, nutritional and chemical components through the development of a harmonized framework that will be available to EU member states organizations. RiskBenefit4EU will gather, develop and harmonize approaches for risk-benefit problem-formulation and -solving. The objectives of RiskBenefit4EU include three main topics: 1) to capacitate recipient partners on food RBA; 2) the develop an harmonized framework for RBA and validate it through the application to a Portuguese case-study, 3) to disseminate and promote the harmonized framework to potential EU users (https://riskbenefit4eu.wordpress.com/). The first topic include the development of training activities aimed at risk-benefit assessment including the microbiological, nutritional and chemical componentes. The National Food Institute, from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), two recognized research institutions in the area of RBA in food and project members, will prepare and deliver training, and in collaboration with INSA and the other participating national institutions (ASAE and FCNAUP), participate in the development of a conceptual model of RBA, harmonization of nutritional, chemical and microbiological data, development of assessment scenarios and application of health measures to estimate the health impact. The second topic aims to apply the conceptual model developed to a national case study. All participants will contribute in order to develop the ARB in the selected case study. The third topic will be dedicated to the maintenance, dissemination and promotion of the methodologies developed to potential EU users. All beneficiaries will be involved in this task and it is planned to organize an international conference as a way of disseminating the methodologies and results obtained.