Rationale and methods of the EFCOSUM project

Area of Science:

• Public Health Nutrition
• Dietary Assessment Methodology
• International Health Monitoring

Background:

• Existing national food consumption data lack international comparability and vary in quality.
• A need exists for a standardized method to generate comparable dietary indicators across EU Member States.
• The EU's Health Monitoring Programme aims to establish a Community Health Monitoring System.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a standardized method for European food consumption surveys.
• To define a minimum set of policy-relevant, health-determinant dietary indicators.
• To enable internationally comparable data collection on nutrition across Europe.

Main Methods:

• The European Food Consumption Survey Method (EFCOSUM) project involved 14 EU Member States and 9 other European countries.
• Activities included plenary sessions, desk research, and working group collaborations, building on prior projects.
• A standardized method was defined for monitoring food consumption in representative samples across Europe.

Main Results:

• A method for conducting European food consumption surveys was developed.
• The project defined a set of key dietary indicators for health monitoring.
• The proposed method facilitates internationally comparable nutritional data.

Conclusions:

• The EFCOSUM method provides a framework for consistent food consumption data collection in Europe.
• This approach supports the development of a robust Community Health Monitoring System for nutrition.
• The method can be used independently or to calibrate existing dietary studies.