Food additives intake assessment – a school population case study

Introduction/Aim: Food additives are safe, however consumption of some of them should not exceed the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). In this regard, European Commission requires member states to monitor the intake of these additives at national level. When there are no national food consumption data available, the evaluation can initially be performed in population subgroups of higher risk, such as young people. Additives intake assessment studies are carried out, in a first approach, by crossing the food consumption data with the maximum permitted levels of additives in food (LMU), to identify the additives which intake could constitute a health concern. OPEN Portugal is an online nutritional platform that allows the evaluation of food consumption. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of the OPEN Portugal tool in obtaining food consumption data by a school population, to identify most consumed food additives and those that need more detailed and refined studiesMONITADITIVOS project funded by INSA.