Comparison of meat products' composition bearing/not-bearing claims marketed in the Czech Republic

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyse the occurrence and specific composition of meat products (MPs) bearing nutrition/health claims marketed in the Czech Republic. MPs were analysed for fat content, fatty acids (FA) composition and sodium (Na) content. The compliance with legal requirements (Regulation EC No 192

Consumer involvement in dietary guideline development: opinions from European stakeholders.

OBJECTIVE: The involvement of consumers in the development of dietary guidelines has been promoted by national and international bodies. Yet, few best practice guidelines have been established to assist with such involvement. DESIGN: Qualitative semi-structured interviews explored stakeholders' beliefs about consumer involvement in dietary guideline development. SETTING: Interviews were conducted in six European countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Serbia, Spain and the UK. SUBJECTS: Seventy-seven stakeholders were interviewed. Stakeholders were grouped as government, scientific advisory body, professional and academic, industry or non-government organisations. Response rate ranged from 45 % to 95 %. RESULTS: Thematic analysis was conducted with the assistance of NVivo qualitative software. Analysis identified two main themes: (i) type of consumer involvement and (ii) pros and cons of consumer involvement. Direct consumer involvement (e.g. consumer organisations) in the decision-making process was discussed as a facilitator to guideline communication towards the end of the process. Indirect consumer involvement (e.g. consumer research data) was considered at both the beginning and the end of the process. Cons to consumer involvement included the effect of vested interests on objectivity; consumer disinterest; and complications in terms of time, finance and technical understanding. Pros related to increased credibility and trust in the process. CONCLUSIONS: Stakeholders acknowledged benefits to consumer involvement during the development of dietary guidelines, but remained unclear on the advantage of direct contributions to the scientific content of guidelines. In the absence of established best practice, clarity on the type and reasons for consumer involvement would benefit all actors

Cattle tissues as a source of cadmium for consumers

The aim of this study was to re-evaluate the analytical results and time trends of the content of cadmium in muscle, liver, and kidney samples of young bovine animals and cows slaughtered in the Czech Republic during the years 1993–2010, and to estimate the total dietary exposure for the entire population aged 4–90 years and specifically, for children at the age of four to six years. Analyses showed that the arithmetic means of cadmium concentration in cow kidney and liver are higher than in young bovine (P P = 0.227). The mean cadmium concentration in cow kidney (0.595 mg·kg-1) was twice as high as in young bovine kidney (0.285 mg·kg-1) for the entire studied period. The mean concentration of cadmium in cow liver (0.113 mg·kg-1) was higher compared to young bovine liver (0.078 mg·kg-1). The mean concentration of cadmium in cow muscle (0.008 mg·kg-1) was comparable with young bovine muscle (0.006 mg·kg-1). The evaluation of time trends showed increasing concentrations of cadmium for cow (increasing slaughtering age) and young bovine kidney and decreasing concentrations for cow and young bovine muscle, but no significant change for liver. The estimated Cd burden of the entire population is worthy of attention (10% were over the tolerable dose of 2.5 μg·kg-1 body weight and week). For more than 50% of four to six-year-old children the burden exceeded the tolerable weekly intake. The contribution of food belonging to the group of meat and meat products, including cattle tissues, to usual cadmium exposure is only 5%. Nevertheless, the food safety recommendation is not to consume cow kidney as food

Predicting urinary creatinine excretion and its usefulness to identify incomplete 24 h urine collections

Studies using 24 h urine collections need to incorporate ways to validate the completeness of the urine samples. Models to predict urinary creatinine excretion (UCE) have been developed for this purpose; however, information on their usefulness to identify incomplete urine collections is limited. We aimed to develop a model for predicting UCE and to assess the performance of a creatinine index using para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) as a reference. Data were taken from the European Food Consumption Validation study comprising two nonconsecutive 24 h urine collections from 600 subjects in five European countries. Data from one collection were used to build a multiple linear regression model to predict UCE, and data from the other collection were used for performance testing of a creatinine index-based strategy to identify incomplete collections. Multiple linear regression (n 458) of UCE showed a significant positive association for body weight (beta = 0.07), the interaction term sex x weight (beta = 0.09, reference women) and protein intake (beta = 0.02). A significant negative association was found for age (beta = -0.09) and sex (beta= -3.14, reference women). An index of observed-to-predicted creatinine resulted in a sensitivity to identify incomplete collections of 0.06 (95% CI 0.01, 0.20) and 0.11 (95% CI 0.03, 0.22) in men and women, respectively. Specificity was 0.97 (95% CI 0.97, 0.98) in men and 0.98 (95% CI 0.98, 0.99) in women. The present study shows that UCE can be predicted from weight, age and sex. However, the results revealed that a creatinine index based on these predictions is not sufficiently sensitive to exclude incomplete 24 h urine collections