Estimation of sulphite in food in France.

Estimates have been made of the consumption levels of sulphites in foods in France using two methods, a global and a segmented protocol. The global method gave an estimated average intake of 20 mg SO2/day/capita; the segmented method gave estimates of 1.96 mg/day/capita for non-consumers of alcoholic beverages and 31.5 mg/day/capita for average consumers of cider, beer and wine. The risk of exceeding the Acceptable Daily Intake concerns only regular consumers (40-75 years old) of alcoholic beverages, particularly wine, the main vector. The global approach appears to be a simple and useful method for estimating intakes.