Public Health Nutrition: 13(6A), 915–919 doi:10.1017/S1368980010001096 Dietary survey methodology of FINDIET 2007 with a risk assessment perspective Heli Reinivuo 1, *, Tero Hirvonen 2 , Marja-Leena Ovaskainen 1 , Tommi Korhonen 1 and Liisa M Valsta 1 1 Nutrition Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, PO Box 30, FI-00271, Helsinki, Finland: 2 Risk Assessment Unit, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Helsinki, Finland Submitted 20 July 2009: Accepted 15 March 2010 Abstract A cross-sectional survey, FINDIET 2007, was carried out in Finland. Food intake data was collected by a 48 h recall interview. Additional food intake data was collected by a repeated 3 d food diary, a barcode-based product diary, a food frequency questionnaire and by a supplementary questionnaire on rarely eaten foods. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the methodology of the national dietary survey and to discuss the particular implications for the appli- cations of food consumption data in risk assessment. The food consumption data of the FINDIET 2007 survey can be used in food risk assessment, due thanks to flexible data processing of individual food consumption, and a risk assessment point of view was taken into account. However, international standardisation projects are needed in order to estimate comparable food intakes. Keywords Dietary assessment Finland Food consumption Risk assessment In the general framework of health promotion in the European Union, good health is linked both with a balanced food consumption and with the safety of the food supply (1) . National dietary surveys are used for monitoring the food consumption and nutrient intake of population groups and for assessing potential food-borne risks, which arise from the intake of harmful substances like toxins or microbes, or the excessive intake of natural food components. Food risk assessment is used to characterise the potential adverse effects on health resulting from expo- sure to food-borne risks over a specified time period (2) . In recent years, the idea of risk-based food safety manage- ment has increased the need for food risk assessment. Risk assessment-based food safety measures are designed to reduce risks to a target level (2) . These measures are planned in order to achieve an established level of human health protection. In order to quantify food-borne risks, an exposure assessment – as a part of risk assessment – is essential. For exposure assessment, demographically and geographically representative food consumption data is needed. In most countries, food consumption data used for risk assessment is collected in national dietary surveys. The methodological development has faced new challenges, since the use of the data in national dietary surveys for risk assessment purposes increased in the mid 1990s (3) . The need to collect data in an internationally standardised manner has been recognised in European harmonisation projects (4) . The main challenge tackled is the development of methods for assessing food consump- tion accurately, e.g. portion sizes, detailed food description, harmonisation of food classification and development of common data interchange formats for collaborative projects. The aim of the present paper is to describe the meth- odology of the national dietary survey and to discuss the particular implications for the application of food consumption data in risk assessment. Finnish national dietary survey Data collection The national FINDIET 2007 survey was carried out in a 33 % sub-sample of the national FINRISK study, which is a cross-sectional population survey assessing the risk factors of chronic diseases (5,6) . For the FINRISK survey, a random sample of persons aged 25–74 years, stratified by sex, area and 10-year age groups was drawn from the population register. The survey covered five study areas in Finland representing 35 % of the population. The sur- vey included a health examination at the local health centre, and participants were asked to complete a ques- tionnaire that covered questions on socio-economic factors, medical history, perceived health and lifestyle including the set of food questions. Dietary assessment in the national FINDIET 2007 sur- vey consisted of several elements: a 48 h dietary recall interview, a questionnaire for rarely eaten foods, a 3 d *Corresponding author: Email heli.reinivuo@thl.fi r The Authors 2010