At present there in no requirement in the EU to collect data on individual food consumption. Nevertheless, national studies have been made of the diet in many European countries and these provide valuable information for use in national policies and are essential for nutritional monitoring.

Most recent national surveys of food consumption conducted in countries in the European Union:

• Germany (14 – 80 years old, 2008)  
• Austria (18 – 65 years old, 2008)
• Finland (25 – 74 years old, 2008)
• France (3 – 79 years old, 2007)
• Ireland (over 18 years old, 2008)
• Holland (7 – 69 years old, 2010)
• The United Kingdom (over 1.5 years old, 2010)

In addition, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) encourages and coordinates the collection of standardised food consumption data and is working with Member States to develop harmonised surveys on food consumption in the European Union. This means that studies can be compared, permitting their usage at Community level.

EFSA has published a guide for conducting surveys in a European framework and other documents on the classification and coding of foods, in addition to the “Comprehensive Food Consumption Database” containing detailed data from the individual surveys conducted in different countries in the EU.

The “EU Menu” project aims to harmonise food consumption data collection throughout Europe. 

In this respect “The food classification and description system FoodEx 2” has been developed. This is a new system of coding and classifying food which will permit the use of consumption data from different EU countries with different purposes: risk assessment, nutritional studies and any other need that may arise in the future.