Excerpt

Risk assessment methods and their applications in food and nutrition have evolved considerably over the last 20 years. Concurrently, there have been important developments in approaches to assessing data sets, in statistical techniques, and in the fields of genetics, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Many of these developments provide insights into how food affects human health. Risk assessment applications now occur in areas that originally were not considered to be in the risk assessment realm. Among these are applications of risk assessment to the microbiological safety of foods and human nutrition. This workshop was designed to bring together experts from many fields to consider what has been learned about the application of risk assessment to various food- and nutrition-related problems, to discuss the strengths and challenges in using risk assessment methods to inform the setting of dietary and nutritional recommendations and other forms of decision making, and to suggest next steps for making progress in these areas.

Contents

• The National Academies
• Working Group on Nutritional Risk Assessment
• Food Forum
• Food and Nutrition Board
• Independent Report Reviewers
• Overview
• 1. Introduction
  • CONTEXT
  • OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP
• 2. Assessment and Nutrition: Sharing Perspectives
  • A RISK ASSESSOR’S PERSPECTIVE: WHAT QUESTIONS CAN RISK ASSESSMENT ANSWER?
  • A NUTRITIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE: RELEVANT ISSUES IN NUTRITIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT
  • AN INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE: HOW THE FOOD INDUSTRY USES RESULTS FROM RISK ASSESSMENT
  • A PUBLIC POLICY PERSPECTIVE: LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT RISK ASSESSMENT METHODS FOR DECISION MAKING
  • OPEN DISCUSSION
  • References
• 3. An Examination of Current and Potential Nutritional Risk Assessment Methods
  • THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE PROCESS TO ESTABLISH TOLERABLE UPPER INTAKE LEVELS: MODEL AND DATA NEEDS
  • POTENTIAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ESTABLISHING NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS AND TOLERABLE UPPER INTAKE LEVELS
  • LESSONS ABOUT NUTRITIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT LEARNED FROM THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION/WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
  • EXPANDING METHODS USED IN NUTRITIONAL RISK ASSESSMENTS
  • KEY CHALLENGES IN RISK-BASED APPROACHES TO NUTRITION POLICY
  • COMMENTARY
  • OPEN DISCUSSION
  • References
• 4. Establishing Relationships Between Dietary Patterns and Health Outcomes
  • CHALLENGES IN ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FOOD PATTERNS AND HEALTH OUTCOMES
  • EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW PROCESS TO LINK DIETARY FACTORS WITH CHRONIC DISEASE
  • EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW FOR HEALTH CLAIMS: A CASE STUDY
  • OPEN DISCUSSION
  • References
• 5. New Developments in and Challenges to Nutritional Risk Assessment
  • ROLES OF NUTRIGENOMICS AND POPULATION VARIABILITY IN NUTRITIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT
  • MEASURING USUAL DIETARY INTAKE FOR RISK ASSESSMENT
  • NUTRIENTS AND FOOD COMPOSITION: DATA NEEDS
  • References
• 6. Perspectives on Challenges and Solutions: Summary Remarks and Suggested Next Steps
  • THE RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS
  • CONSUMER PERSPECTIVES
  • References
• Appendixes
  • A Workshop Agenda
  • B Workshop Participants
  • C Speaker, Moderator, and Discussant Biographies
  • D Acronyms and Abbreviations

Rapporteurs: Carol West Suitor, Ann Yaktine, and Maria Oria

This study was supported by Contract No. HHSF223200730582P between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the Interagency Risk Assessment Consortium; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the International Life Sciences Institute.

Suggested citation:

Institute of Medicine (IOM). 2007. Nutritional risk assessment: Perspectives, methods, and data challenges, workshop summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.