NR AWMS
AU Ru,G.; Barizzone,F.; Desiato,R.; Caramelli,M.; Goossens,B.
TI How much sheep meat we eat in Europe: data for risk assessment
QU International Conference - Prion 2006: Strategies, advances and trends towards protection of society - 3.10.-6.10.2006, Torino, Italy, Lingotto Conference Centre - Poster sessions RA-09
PT Konferenz-Poster
AB The confirmation of the first case of BSE in a goat, in 2005, raised concern on the human risk of exposure to BSE via sheep and goat meat consumption. Unfortunately few data are available on this kind of consumption and most of nutrition surveys do not specifically account for items like sheep or lamb meat. Our purpose was to estimate the order of magnitude of the sheep meat consumption in the European population. This exercise is part of an exposure assessment aiming at characterizing the intake of a potential BSE infective dose through small ruminants' meat. Two nationwide surveys, providing data on the weekly or daily intake of sheep meat in the United Kingdom (National Diet and Nutrition Survey) and in Italy (INN-CA study) were used to validate Eurostat data as a reliable source. Using the Eurostat data on human population sizes, production of sheep carcasses and the import/export of sheep meat in the EU15 countries from 1995 to 2005, we estimated the overall EU15-wide consumptions and the daily individual meat intake over the last 10-year period. The overall annual consumption of sheep meat in both Italy and UK obtained through survey data was lower than that from Eurostat but of the same order of magnitude. The EU15-wide figures for the overall annual consumption (in 1000-ton) and daily individual intake (in grams) were respectively 1186.4 and 8.5 for the year 2004. We provide helpful and previously unavailable data on the sheep meat consumption. Moreover we show that Eurostat data may represent a valuable source when carrying out food exposure assessment. The difference observed between national surveys and official statistics may come from different food classification used. Finally our findings are population averages with skewed distributions: further information is needed on the "actual consumers". It is further recommended to initiate collection of such data from more Member States using a harmonized approach in order to be able to compare results.
AD G. Ru, R. Desiato, M. Caramelli: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte CEA, Turin, Italy; F. Barrizone, B. Goossens: European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy
SP englisch
PO Italien