Table 5.

Qualitative evaluation of influence of uncertainties on the dietary exposure estimate, excluding the food supplements consumers only scenario and foods for special medical purposes consumers only scenario

Sources of uncertainties	Directiona
Consumption data: different methodologies/representativeness/underreporting/misreporting/no portion size standard	+/–
Use of data from food consumption survey of a few days to estimate long‐term (chronic) exposure for high percentiles (95th percentile)	+
Correspondence of reported use levels and analytical data to the food items in the EFSA Comprehensive Food Consumption Database: uncertainties to which types of food the levels refer to	+/–
Uncertainty in possible national differences in use levels of food categories	+/–
Concentration data: levels considered applicable for all items within the entire food category unclear representativeness of foods on the EU market	+ +/–
The 25 food categories which were taken into account in the refined exposure assessment scenario out of all authorised food categories (n = 79), corresponded to 14–93% of the amount (g of foods by body weight) of food consumption documented in the EFSA Consumption Database	−
Food categories selected for the exposure assessment: exclusion of food categories due to missing FoodEx linkage (n = 17/79 food categories)	–
Food categories selected for the exposure assessment: inclusion of food categories without considering the restriction/exception (n = 5/79 food categories)	+
Food categories included in the exposure assessment: no additional data available for authorised food categories (n = 28/79 food categories)	–
Regulatory maximum level exposure assessment scenario: exposure calculations based on the MPLs and maximum reported use levels (reported use from industry) assuming xanthan gum (E 415) is not used in the food categories for which no use levels were submitted foods which may contain xanthan gum (E 415) according to Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 not taken into account food categories of food supplements not considered in the exposure assessment	+ – –
Refined exposure assessment scenarios: exposure calculations based on the maximum or mean levels (reported use from industry) foods which may contain xanthan gum (E 415) according to Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 not taken into account food categories of food supplements not considered in the exposure assessment	+/– – –

^a+, uncertainty with potential to cause overestimation of exposure; –, uncertainty with potential to cause underestimation of exposure.