Professors: Jouko Tuomisto, emeritus prof.; Terttu Vartiainen, prof.; Suvi Virtanen, prof.; Juha Pekkanen, D.Med.Sc.
Docents: Jouni Tuomisto, D.Med.Sc.
Post Docs: Anna Karjalainen, Ph.D.; Hannu Kiviranta, Ph.D.; Tero Hirvonen, D.Med.Sc..
Postgraduates: Olli Leino, M.Sc.; Mikko Pohjola, M.Sc.; Marko Tainio, M.Sc.; Juha Villmann, M.Sc.
• National Public Health Institute (KTL), Finland, Dr. Jouni Tuomisto,
Beneris coordinator
• Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), Netherlands, Dr. Roger Cooke, prof.
• Oy Foodfiles Ltd (FFiles), Finland, Henna Karvonen, nutritionist
• Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), Ireland, Dr. Iona Pratt
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark, Dr. Ole Ladefoged
• Food Safety Authority of Denmark (FVST), Denmark, Dr. Kim Petersen, prof.
• Lendac Ltd (Lendac), Ireland, Don Lehane, computer analyst
• Fundación Privada para la Investigación Nutricional (FIN), Spain, Dr. Lluis Serra-Majem, prof.
Funding: EU, Sixth framework programme on Food Quality and Safety (Food-CT-2006-022936)
Funding period: Years 2006-2009
Contact person: Jouni Tuomisto,
firstname.lastaname@thl.fi
Homepage: http://www.beneris.eu/
Food safety and risks are a highly sensitive area. Recent food crises have shown that risks related to food must be dealt with in a sophisticated and scientifically justifiable manner. This project will utilise a benefit-risk approach with an iterative top-down approach to explore risks of food and its contaminants. An essential part of the work is to develop and use integrated methods to evaluate both the risks and health benefits related to any given food item. Decision analytical methods will be used to find out the critical uncertainties for decision-making. The main objectives are:
• To develop Bayesian belief networks (BBN) to handle complicated benefit-risk situations, and to develop a decision support system (DSS) based on BBN
• To develop improved methods for dose-response assessment, combining epidemiological and toxicological data, and apply them in combining epidemiological and toxicological information on fish contaminants
• To develop an integrated repository of surveillance, nutrient and food consumption data that is capable of receiving, analyzing, and disseminating the accumulated data for benefit-risk analysis and to key stakeholders
• To review the existing databases and their availability for chemical contaminant data in Europe, and integrate available data
• To estimate average nutrient intakes and food consumption in various subgroups based on national registries in three countries and to explore the use of the data in benefit-risk analysis
• To estimate the health benefits of fish, and understand the effect of fish on different population subgroups (age, health, pregnancy etc.)
• To establish the association between external dose (intake) and internal dose (concentrations in the body) by analysing contaminants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PBDEs, organotin compounds, PCNs and Hg/methyl-Hg) from 100-200 placentas
• To combine existing and new data from food consumption databases with data on levels of contaminants in fish. The special emphasis is on children and the developing foetus
• To estimate distributions of nutrient intake and food consumption relevant to benefit-risk analysis in a number of populations, and also the variability in exposure among various subgroups in the population.
• To identify food consumption patterns and food choices that determine the intake of those nutrients and contaminants that are related to benefit/risk-balance of a food item
• To explore the usability of these patterns in another country than in which they were developed
• To find out the effects of certain policy options on dietary habits and on intake of important nutrients and contaminants (e.g. vitamin D, n-3 fatty acids, dioxins, PCBs)
Advancements in the project will be to work on existing databases of food intake and nutrients, and food consumption studies in several European countries, while most previous work has been on national level. The data will be integrated and its applicability to other countries will be studied. This information will be combined to chemical contaminant measurements for an exposure assessment of both nutrients and contaminants. Variability between subpopulations (area, gender, age) will be especially addressed. Health effects of contaminants and nutrients will be estimated by using new methods (to be developed in this project) integrating both epidemiological and toxicological data. Results and methods will be actively disseminated using a new Internet interface and other means, and feedback will be collected during the project. Major advancements in benefit-risk analysis require highly interdisciplinary work with epidemiologists, toxicologists, nutrition scientists, exposure assessors, risk analysts, and authorities. All these disciplines are represented in this project by several partners. We also have good contacts with potential sources of data in different parts of Europe, and with ongoing or proposed EU projects. End-users and authorities will be involved from the beginning thus improving the sciencepolicy interface, and ensuring that the work has both scientific and societal relevance.
This project forms a cluster with another project in the same call, namely Qalibra ( http://www.qalibra.eu/). The two projects are tackling the same problems but using complementary methods and approaches. Qalibra is more focussed on developing web-based technical tools for risk assessment, while Beneris concentrates on developing useful approaches and strategies (including extensive case studies) and disseminating them through the web. Close collaboration in and between joint meetings and common dissemination efforts will ensure that the new knowledge developed in one project will be utilised also in the other one.