Who and what should be considered in any exposure assessment

Brand loyalty is the preference of a consumer for a particular brand of the same foodstuff, but this has implications as described in SCOOP (Report EUR 17528EN). The exposure for a brand loyal and non-loyal consumer could vary significantly if there were, for example, a different food additive present in one brand compared to another, for example, present in biscuit X but not Y or Z. Do brand loyal biscuit X consumers eat biscuit X at the same level as brand loyal biscuit Y consumers eat biscuit Y and do the aggregated (non-brand loyal and brand loyal) biscuit consumers (biscuits X, Y and Z) eat biscuits at the same levels as the brand loyal consumers of biscuits X and Y If the additive is only present in say biscuit X, then the aggregated biscuit consumption would under-estimate the exposure to the additive for the brand loyal consumer who only ate biscuit X, but would over-estimate the exposure for the consumer who only ate biscuit Y, but would be most representative 

Another factor, which may influence the realistic concentration data, is store loyalty, which is in reality a sub-set of brand loyalty. This applies in those situations where for whatever reasons, such as lack of mobility, the consumer is effectively forced to purchase from a local store. If they purchase own brand foodstuffs and if these foodstuffs have a different concentration of the migrant data set compared to the overall concentration data compiled during a survey, such as the FSA BADGE survey (2000), then it is necessary to ensure that if the concentration data are higher the consumers who purchase only own brands are protected. It could be argued that if the concentration data are lower, then these data should also be used. 

---