Identification of risk groups for intake of food chemicals

This paper summarizes by four recent examples the procedure of the characterization of groups at risk for ingestion of food chemicals and its limitations. The examples concern two food additives (sulfites and aspartame), one nutrient (calcium), and one food contaminant (patuline). On the one hand, results show that the empirical description of a group at risk is nowadays the best way to provide to risk managers information useful for consumer protection. On the other hand, these examples show that in any case if risk 0 does not exist, it is impossible to completely avoid any group at risk. The responsibility of risk managers is to decide what is the minimum size of the population to protect as a function of the risk and of the cost of the protection.