Food consumption rates for use in generalised radiological dose assessments

In 1990, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) Working Party on Radionuclides in Food agreed that a standard set of UK food consumption data was needed for the estimation of radiation doses from ingestion. It was decided that MAFF and the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) as two of the main users of such figures would work together to produce a set of revised food consumption data. Tn the past MAFF and NRPB have used food consumption data which have differed slightly in detail. The aim of the work described is to provide an agreed set of data for general use in the two organisations and elsewhere, for example by local authorities and nuclear operators. The availability of survey data on dietary habits, collected within the past 12 years, for adults, schoolchildren and infants offered the opportunity for revising the previous estimates of food consumption and producing a new and comprehensive set of data.