Food can be a significant source of chemical substances and harmful microbes for humans. Information is needed on the amounts of chemicals and microbes supplied by foods, and on the most important dietary sources of these substances.
In the ’Exposure to microbiological and chemical hazards via food’(BIKE) –project, Finnish Food Authority’s Risk Assessment Research Unit develops a statistical method/program to be used in the intake assessment of chemicals and microbes. The method accounts for the presence or concentration of these substances in the foods and the food consumption data of the population. The new method can utilize missing and fragmentary data better than the current intake assessment models, and it can also use analysis results that are lower than the detection limit. Furthermore, the new method is easy to modify in accordance to the features of the data.
The BIKE project is carried out in cooperation with the Food and Environmental Virology Unit of the University of Helsinki. Foodborne viral epidemics, which have emerged lately on an international basis, are a threat that has to be taken into account in Finland as well. Therefore, consumption data of risk foods in Finland will be collected in the project. Information on viruses that is needed in the statistical model to be developed is scarce, and it will be collected from multiple literature sources and by analyzing a few missing values during the project.
Timetable
2014 - 2017
Project funding
Development Fund Agricultural and Forestry (MAKERA), Finnísh Food Authority, University of Helsinki
Research group
Pirkko Tuominen (Finnish Food Authority)
Jukka Ranta (Finnish Food Authority)
Johanna Suomi (Finnish Food Authority)
Kimmo Suominen (Finnish Food Authority)
Liisa Uusitalo (Finnish Food Authority)
Antti Mikkelä (Finnish Food Authority)
Leena Maunula (Helsinki University)
Tuija Kantala (Helsinki University)
Maija Summa (Helsinki University)
Kirsi Söderberg (Helsinki University)
Project publications
Ranta J, Mikkelä A, Suomi J, Tuominen P. BIKE: Dietary Exposure Model for Foodborne Microbiological and Chemical Hazards. Foods. 2021; 10(11):2520. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112520
Further information
Pirkko Tuominen, pirkko.tuominen@foodauthority.fi