Proposal for a survey of fruit and vegetable consumption in mainland France for the purpose of assessing health risks: results from the INCa2 dietary survey

Assessing the health risks associated with soil contamination in vegetable gardens can be challenging. Indeed, collecting data on self-consumption specific to the site under study can be time-consuming and costly, given the limited time available to decide on public health measures. To address this lack of information, the use of human exposure variables—data describing a population’s behavior—is therefore unavoidable. In France, the data currently available consist of simple descriptive statistics published in the CIBLEX database of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). These data were derived from the Individual and National Survey on Food Consumption (INCa1) conducted between 1998 and 1999, cross-referenced with household consumption rates provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). Thus, these data are relatively old, and the descriptive results presented in CIBLEX did not allow for the conduct of probabilistic risk assessments. Therefore, this study aims to update the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and potatoes for adults and children in metropolitan France. The results are presented in the form of probability distributions suitable for conducting probabilistic risk assessments. The updating of self-consumption data is not addressed in this study. The data used in this study are derived from the INCa2 survey conducted between 2006 and 2007 by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). The method consists, on the one hand, of estimating simple statistics (mean, median, 90th percentile) and, on the other hand, of fitting probability distributions describing the consumption of these fruits, vegetables, and potatoes. Consumption of fruits and vegetables increases with age. On average, fruits are consumed more than other food groups. Next come potatoes, fruit vegetables, leafy vegetables, and root vegetables. Women consume slightly more vegetables and fruits than men. However, they consume slightly fewer potatoes than men. Since the distribution of fruit and vegetable consumption is asymmetric with a right-skewed tail, the gamma distribution provides the best fit for both adults and children. These results can be applied to contaminated sites and soils used as vegetable gardens, given the available percentages of self-consumption.

Author(s): Zeghnoun Abdelkrim, Kairo Cécile

Publishing year: 2016

Pages: 207-18

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