Food improvement agents applications: Tools
Food Enzyme Intake Model
The Food Enzyme Intake Model (FEIM) is a tool for estimating chronic dietary exposure For the purposes of risk assessment, measurement of the amount of a substance consumed by a person or animal in their diet that is intentionally added or unintentionally present (e.g. a nutrient, additive or pesticide) to food enzymes used in food manufacturing processes to produce food ingredients or foods as consumed. FEIM follows the methodology recommended in the CEP Panel’s Scientific Guidance for the submission of dossiers on food enzymes with input data curated according to the Guidance on food manufacturing processes and technical data used in the exposure assessment of food enzymes. FEIM is the outcome of a long-standing effort started in 2016 with the launch of numerous calls for data on food enzyme-specific uses for various manufacturing processes. Such data was matched to FoodEx2 categories according to technical factors and assembled into a catalogue. By 2023 the catalogue contained 40 individual food manufacturing processes. By collating that data, 30 spreadsheet calculators were created (FEIM Calculators), combining the collected data with consumption data from the European Food Consumption Database. These calculators provided process-specific exposure results for different population Community of humans, animals or plants from the same species groups (e.g., infants, toddlers, or adults) in different countries of the EU.
In 2024, following its adoption at the first plenary meeting of the FEZ Panel, a web tool to calculate cumulative exposure from multiple food manufacturing processes was released. The latest version of FEIM released in July 2025 comes with major updates to the data including the most recent dietary surveys and population classes use the categorisation released in the December 2024 version of the Comprehensive Database.
How does it work?
The webtool is freely accessible to anyone through the R4EU platform either by using Google credentials or by registering on the portal. The tool allows users to obtain intake estimates for a specific enzyme under its intended uses, by choosing one or more relevant food manufacturing process(es) and entering the corresponding enzyme use levels, expressed as mg TOS (Total Organic Solids)/kg of raw materials.
The development of this open-source platform is described in a technical report. Its R Shiny code and the user manual are downloadable from the EFSA Knowledge Junction.
Food Additives Intake Model
The Food Additives Intake The amount of a substance (e.g. nutrient or chemical) that is ingested by a person or animal via the diet Model (FAIM) is a tool for estimating chronic dietary exposure to food additives. It allows users to estimate the mean and high-level exposure Concentration or amount of a particular substance that is taken in by an individual, population or ecosystem in a specific frequency over a certain amount of time to food additives for different population groups in several European countries.
It can be used by applicants, risk assessors and risk managers for estimating exposure to new food additives or to already authorised food additives for which a new use is proposed. Exposure results are provided for different population groups (e.g. infants (4-12 months), toddlers, adults, etc.) and for different countries.
FAIM is based on data collected from EU Member States on food consumption (stored in the EFSA Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database).
The latest version of FAIM 3.0 is accessible on the R4EU portal either using your Google credentials or by registering on the portal. Among the major improvements, the new version includes:
- Two new exposure scenarios one focusing only on exposed consumers and another limited to consumers of selected food categories.
- An enhanced user interface with new export and import options to support repeated or continued assessments.
- The most recent dietary surveys and population classes use the categorisation released in the December 2024 version of the Comprehensive Database.
During a transition period, both the previous version of FAIM 2.1 on MicroStrategy and FAIM 3.0 on R4EU will be accessible. However, FAIM 2.1 will no longer receive updates or maintenance and will be phased out by 31 May 2026.