Human Biomonitoring at Food Authorities

Abstract

Human biomonitoring (HBM) provides a powerful tool in risk and benefit assessment and policy making both for food safety and nutrition. HBM integrates exposure from all sources, can be used to demonstrate trends, to identify vulnerable groups and emerging risks. Limitations are e.g. that HBM does not provide any information on the source of exposure or how long a chemical has been in the body. There is a need to develop HBM to increase its usefulness in policy making. This report maps HBM studies performed at or initiated by food safety authorities in the Nordic countries and discuss problems and options for further work. Traditionally authorities in the Nordic countries have not been using HBM in their work. The report shows that only few studies have been performed and it differs among the countries. There might be several reasons for this e.g. sampling blood and urine is demanding, there are ethical and privacy issues and analytical costs are high. Also, studies performed at other institutions can be used by the national authorities but such studies are not included in this report. One way forward is cooperation-with researchers and between authorities in different countries. Furthermore, food safety authorities have special responsibilities in cases of emergencies and disasters. In these cases HBM provides a good tool for exposure measurement but cooperation and infrastructure for sampling and handling of samples must be established beforehand.

Public Expressions of Trust and Distrust in Governmental Dietary Advice in Sweden

“…Authoritative food experts do not influence public trust directly but gain influence as part of expert organizations, because individuals place trust in authoritative institutions as entities rather than in the people who together compose these institutions (Bildtgård, 2008; Kjærnes, 2013). In addition, Kjærnes (1999) argues that regulatory authorities must demonstrate independence and openness to gain public trust; similar concepts of transparency and objectivity are also central to governmental processes of formulating dietary guidelines (Mattisson, Eneroth, & Becker, 2012; Watts, Hager, Toner, & Weber, 2011).…”

“…The agency has the task of providing dietary advice and promoting food habits that would meet basic nutritional needs and prevent diseases across the entire population. Although publishing and disseminating dietary guidelines are two small tasks among all the responsibilities of the agency (Mattisson et al, 2012; Regeringskansliet, 2009), they form a key means of engaging with the public. The Swedish process of publishing dietary guidelines is relatively open and members of the public are invited to have a say during the process.…”

Stakeholder responses to governmental dietary guidelines

“…This dietary advice is based on the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations and on studies concerning the health effects of certain foods or dietary patterns. This advice is supposed to target the most important health problems and to suggest changes based on common dietary habits and the supply of foods available (Mattisson et al , 2012). Public consultation on government issues is a common procedure under the Swedish democratic form of government (Regeringskansliet, 1974) and consequently also as part of the work of the National Food Agency (2015).…”