Food Standards Agency
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Listen to this siteWednesday 16 October 2002
This research project aims to determine whether evaluating commercial data from major supermarkets
could be an appropriate method for the long-term post-market monitoring of novel foods.
Study Duration : October 1998 to September 2001
Contractor : Imperial College, of Science, Technology and Medicine
The aim of this feasibility study is:
1. To explore the use of commercially available data sets on household food consumption and sales through major supermarkets, as a means of quantifying possible 'exposure' to certain foods and nutrients at population level.
2. To explore variation of temporal and geographical scales and to determine whether such an approach is an appropriate method for the long-term post market monitoring of novel foods.
In 1999 a report from the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Adviser was published which reviewed the health implications of genetically modified (GM) foods. Its recommendations included monitoring 'population health aspects of genetically modified and other types of novel foods'. It also suggested examining trends 'to detect any early changes in the incidence of adverse health outcomes, whilst recognising the difficulties establishing casual relationships'.
In light of these recommendations, this study investigated the feasibility of using commercially available datasets on household food consumption and sales through major supermarkets, to carry out this type of surveillance.
The results of this study suggest that it would be possible to monitor food-purchasing patterns reliably at household level using commercially available data. This data could be used to provide information on the amount of novel food the population, as a whole, ate.
The surveillance of ingredients such as soy protein (whether or not GM) is not possible using currently available information. However, it may be feasible using the commercially available data lists if ingredients could be made electronically available for each product and linked to barcode data.
This study only examined food product data. However, any surveillance system would need to correlate food purchase/ sales information with health data. This could not be done at an individual level with the purchase data used because this was based on a sample of households, and sales data are generated at the level of the supermarket (and then further aggregated for confidentiality). Ecological analysis could be carried out to relate health outcomes to potential exposures at a group level. Any effect would need to be large in order to be reliably detected using such methods.
A second approach, which could be explored, would be by exploiting future improvements to linking data in the NHS, which allows factors such as hospital admissions, GP records, cancer diagnosis and death to be linked and followed up using a person's NHS number.
Recording the NHS number of individuals followed for an average of 2.5 years over 10 years would mean that they could be flagged up every time they appeared in routine datasets. It would therefore be possible to monitor short, medium and long-term health effects and link them back to dietary information at a household level.
The FSA currently has no further plans to explore the feasibility of using these approaches for the monitoring of GM foods and ingredients once they have been sold. This is because, in the absence of individual GM foods on the UK market, there is no scope for further work in this area.
If this situation changes, this decision will need to be revisited. The methodology used in this study could be used for the monitoring of novel foods after sale, but the need for such monitoring would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The final report is available from the FSA Library and Information centre. To obtain a copy, please contact the Enquiry Desk, Dr. Elsie Widdowson Library and Information Services, Food Standards Agency (020 7276 8181/8182 or at library&info@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk ).
The paper 'Tracing ingestion of "novel" foods in UK diets for possible health surveillance – a feasibility study' is to be published in Public Health Nutrition in April 2004, issue 7, part 2, pages 345-352.
Contact
: For any enquiries concerning this research project, please email
science@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
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