State General Laboratory Annual Report 2018

34 State General laboratory Annual Report 2018 Dietary Risk assessment The SGL carries out risk assessment for the dietary exposure of the Cyprus population to chemical substances (Regulation No. 178/2002), within its participation in the National Food Safety Council. The Risk Assessment capacity is continuously enhanced with SGL’s participation in EFSA’s Advisory Forum, Focal Point and EFSA’s Networks. The SGL has developed its own risk assessment model called "ImproRisk" in 2014, by which it can perform accurate food risk assessments using: (a) the diachronic chemical occurrence data collected at SGL, in com- bination with b) food consumption data of the Cypriot population, which has been produced by the completion, in 2018, of the "National Dietary Survey of the Cyprus Population" in the context of the research project "EU MENU" of EFSA. From 2008 to 2018, the SGL, based on its laboratory data collected over the years on contaminants in food, has conducted dietary exposure assessment of the Cyprus population (adolescents), to lead, cadmium, mercury, nitrates, acrylamide and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results were satisfactory and are consistent with the respective EFSA risk assessments for Cyprus. In 2018 in particular, the SGL carried out dietary expo- sure assessment of the Cyprus population (adolescents) to Aflatoxin B1. CH 2 CH O O O O HC CH CH 2 CH O O HO CH HC CH 0 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 mh Exposure assessment from food consumption Food consumption data + + Occurrence data (Analytical data)