Council Regulation ( EEC) 315/93 of 8 February 1993 provides the legal framework for establishing maximum levels for food contaminants at Community level. In 1995, a task 3.2.2. concerning the assessment of dietary intake of ochratoxin A by the population was completed and resulted in report EUR 17523 "Assessment of dietary intake of ochratoxin A by the population of EU Member States". It was admitted that the estimates of dietary intakes of ochratoxin A in that report were based on a limited amount of data.

A growing interest and concern of the public authorities for the presence of naturally occurring toxicants in the human food, such as aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, and the discussions at Community level concerning the fixing of maximum limits, have resulted in a more frequent control on the presence of naturally occurring toxicants, in particular aflatoxin sand ochratoxin A, in food. Research has also been launched to link the occurrence of ochratoxin A in human blood plasma with dietary intake patterns.

As a consequence, many recent data on the occurrence of ochratoxin A in human food and human blood plasma have become available since 1995; i.e the presence of ochratoxin A in raisins was-reported only recently. It seems therefore appropriate to update the task undertaken in 1995 and complete it with the recent data, in order to check if these recent data do not change the conclusions of the report EUR 17523 Commission Decision 1999/143/EC, of 27 January 1999 amending Decision 94/652/EC establishing the inventory and distribution of the task to be undertaken within the framework of co-operation by Member States in the scientific examination of questions relating to food,established task 3.2.7 "Assessment of dietary intake of ochratoxin A by the population of EU Member States". Italy was designated as Member State to develop the task.

The objective of the task is to provide the scientific basis for the evaluation and management of risk to public health arising from dietary exposure to ochratoxin A, taking into account recent available data. Particular emphasis is placed on evaluation of dietary intake of ochratoxin A in each of the Member States and in high-risk sub-groups of the population.