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The German Total Diet Study (BfR MEAL Study) measured copper in 356 foods. In 105 of these foods copper was determined separately for conventionally and organically pooled samples. Mammalian liver, nuts, oilseeds, cocoa powder and chia seeds contained the highest copper levels. Organically produced foods tended to have higher levels compared to conventionally produced foods. Children's copper exposure was between 0.04 mg/kg body weight per day (mg/kg bw/day) and 0.07 mg/kg bw/day (median). High exposure (95th percentile) ranged between 0.07 mg/kg bw/day and 0.11 mg/kg bw/day. Adult's exposure ranged between 0.02 mg/kg bw/day (median) and 0.04 mg/kg bw/day (95th percentile). Grains and grain-based products were main contributors for all age groups. Copper intake was about 10% higher in a scenario where consumers select the organically produced variants. Children's median and high exposure was above the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 0.07 mg/kg bw/day set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). However, according to EFSA's evaluation this is not of concern due to higher requirement related to growth. For adults, frequent consumers of mammalian liver exceeded the ADI in median and 95th percentile. Intake of copper-containing dietary supplements may also lead to exceedance of the ADI in all age groups., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Consideration of cumulative dietary risks is a requirement in the European legislation for setting maximum residue levels for pesticides. Current cumulative exposure assessment methodologies strongly rely on representative occurrence data from food monitoring programmes. This study provides a sensitivity analysis, utilising (i) European consumption data expressed as raw agricultural commodity (RAC) equivalents from 23 different countries as published by the European Food Safety Authority and (ii) all maximum residue levels established for pesticides under European Regulation (EC) No 396/2005. Based on two different degrees of conservatism, market baskets consisting of 16 or 41 RACs, respectively, were identified, covering the majority of the total chronic and acute daily exposure. The coverage of the exposure by these market baskets was tested by comparison of cumulative probabilistic exposure assessments for the German population using all food commodities and those using the reduced sets. It was demonstrated that ≥85% of the total chronic exposure is already covered by 16 RACs, while 41 RACs are required to reach a similarly satisfying coverage of the total acute exposure. Results from this study support resource efficient modelling of complex cumulative assessment scenarios and may help to improve the design of food monitoring programmes with respect to a more efficient assessment of potential consumer risks.

Proposals to update the methodology for the international estimated short-term intake (IESTI) equations were made during an international workshop held in Geneva in 2015. Changes to several parameters of the current four IESTI equations (cases 1, 2a, 2b, and 3) were proposed. In this study, the overall impact of these proposed changes on estimates of short-term exposure was studied using the large portion data available in the European Food Safety Authority PRIMo model and the residue data submitted in the framework of the European Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) review under Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005. Evaluation of consumer exposure using the current and proposed equations resulted in substantial differences in the exposure estimates; however, there were no significant changes regarding the number of accepted MRLs. For the different IESTI cases, the median ratio of the new versus the current equation is 1.1 for case 1, 1.4 for case 2a, 0.75 for case 2b, and 1 for case 3. The impact, expressed as a shift in the IESTI distribution profile, indicated that the 95th percentile IESTI shifted from 50% of the acute reference dose (ARfD) with the current equations to 65% of the ARfD with the proposed equations. This IESTI increase resulted in the loss of 1.2% of the MRLs (37 out of 3110) tested within this study. At the same time, the proposed equations would have allowed 0.4% of the MRLs (14 out of 3110) that were rejected with the current equations to be accepted. The commodity groups that were most impacted by these modifications are solanacea (e.g., potato, eggplant), lettuces, pulses (dry), leafy brassica (e.g., kale, Chinese cabbage), and pome fruits. The active substances that were most affected were fluazifop-p-butyl, deltamethrin, and lambda-cyhalothrin.

In 2015 a scientific workshop was held in Geneva, where updating the four equations for estimating the short-term dietary exposure (International Estimated Short Term Intake, IESTI) to pesticides was suggested. The impact of these proposed changes on the exposure was studied by using residue data and large portion consumption data from Codex and Australia. For the Codex data, the exposure increased by a median factor of 2.5 per commodity when changing to the proposed IESTI equations. The increase in exposure was highest for bulked and blended food commodities (case 3 equations), followed by medium-sized food commodities (case 2a equations) and small- and large-sized food commodities (case 1 and case 2b equations). For the Australian data, out of 184 maximum residue limit (MRL) large portion combinations showing acute exposures below the acute reference dose (ARfD) with the current IESTI equations, 23 exceeded the ARfD with the proposed IESTI equations (12%). The percentage exceeding the ARfD was higher for the Australian MRL large portion combinations (12% of 184) than for those of Codex (1.3% of 8,366). However, the percentage MRL loss in the Australian dataset may not be representative of all pesticide MRLs since it concerns six pesticides only, specifically selected to elucidate the potential effects of the use of the proposed IESTI equations. For the Codex data, the increase in exposure using the proposed equations resulted in a small increased loss of 2.6% of the 1,110 MRLs estimated by the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR): 1.4% of the MRLs were already not acceptable with the current equations, 4.0% of the MRLs were not acceptable with the newly proposed equations. Our study revealed that case 3 commodities may be impacted more by the proposed changes than other commodities. This substantiates one of the conclusions of the Geneva workshop to gather information on bulking and blending practices in order to refine MRL setting and dietary risk assessment for case 3 commodities where possible.

In 2015 a scientific workshop was held in Geneva, where updating the International Estimate of Short-Term Intake (IESTI) equations was suggested. This paper studies the effects of the proposed changes in residue inputs, large portions, variability factors and unit weights on the overall short-term dietary exposure estimate. Depending on the IESTI case equation, a median increase in estimated overall exposure by a factor of 1.0-6.8 was observed when the current IESTI equations are replaced by the proposed IESTI equations. The highest increase in the estimated exposure arises from the replacement of the median residue (STMR) by the maximum residue limit (MRL) for bulked and blended commodities (case 3 equations). The change in large portion parameter does not have a significant impact on the estimated exposure. The use of large portions derived from the general population covering all age groups and bodyweights should be avoided when large portions are not expressed on an individual bodyweight basis. Replacement of the highest residue (HR) by the MRL and removal of the unit weight each increase the estimated exposure for small-, medium- and large-sized commodities (case 1, case 2a or case 2b equations). However, within the EU framework lowering of the variability factor from 7 or 5 to 3 counterbalances the effect of changes in other parameters, resulting in an estimated overall exposure change for the EU situation of a factor of 0.87-1.7 and 0.6-1.4 for IESTI case 2a and case 2b equations, respectively.