The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has released an updated version of its Raw Primary Commodity (RPC) model, designed to improve the accuracy and flexibility of dietary exposure assessments to chemicals. The RPC model 2, published as a technical report on 8 July 2026, integrates new dietary surveys, the FoodEx2 classification system, an enhanced methodological workflow, and expanded databases on recipes and reverse yield factors. The update aims to harmonise estimates of RPC, RPC derivative and composite food amounts at the level of individual consumption records, enabling consistent alignment with occurrence data across EFSA's risk assessment areas.
The RPC model 2 builds on the first version of the model, which was developed to strengthen EFSA's capacity to assess dietary exposure at different levels of the food chain, from raw primary commodities to foods as consumed. The new version responds to the availability of new food consumption data, growing complexity of food descriptions, and the need for more accurate estimation of dietary exposure to chemicals. The resulting RPC consumption database provides harmonised estimates that support a more efficient usage of dietary surveys in exposure assessment and is designed to be more flexible towards future methodological refinements.
The technical report notes that some sources of uncertainty remain, such as those related to probabilistic assignment of foods, recipe representativeness, and yield factor variability. However, the implementation of dynamic structures, automated procedures, and transparent versioning ensures that the system remains robust and sustainable. The update is expected to benefit EFSA's risk assessment panels, national food safety authorities, and researchers by providing more consistent and comparable exposure data across different chemical risk assessments, including pesticides, contaminants, and food additives. The report was prepared by EFSA staff including Giulio Di Piazza, Bruno Dujardin, Rita Ferreira de Sousa, Zsuzsanna Horvath, Beatriz Oliveira, Giovanni Tommaso Lanza, Guoda Bubnyte, and Violetta Costanzo, and is accompanied by annexes available on EFSA's Knowledge Junction.