Improvement and international harmonisation of deterministic risk assessment

JMPR, the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues, uses the deterministic GEMS/Food acute (International Estimated Short Term Intake: IESTI) and chronic (International Estimated Daily Intake: IEDI) intake models to estimate the acute and chronic exposure to residues of pesticides through food. These exposure estimates are used for setting of concentration limits for these residues in food.
 

Intake models

As part of the activities within the WHO Collaborating Centre, RIVM updates the food consumption data used in these models. Additionally, RIVM has proposed improvements for the acute intake model (IESTI) to make it compatible with current views on risk assessment and to harmonise the IESTI at a global level. The goal of these improvements is to increase global food safety (safe maximum residue limits of pesticides in foods) and to remove trade barriers due to differences in the IESTI used by different parties.

Total Diet Study (TDS)

For many years, WHO has supported Total Diet Studies (TDS) as the most cost-effective method to assess chronic dietary exposure to chemicals.  A TDS includes the selection of foods based on food consumption data to represent as best as possible a typical diet, their preparation to food as consumed, pooling of related foods within food groups and the chemical analysis of these food groups. RIVM supports WHO with the promotion of a harmonised way of using TDS concentration data for risk assessment.