Achieving a transparent, actionable framework for public-private partnerships for food and nutrition research.

Officers and other representatives of more than a dozen food-, nutrition-, and health-related scientific societies and organizations, food industry scientists, and staff of the USDA, the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the NIH convened on 8 December 2014 in Washington, DC, to reach a consensus among individuals participating on guiding principles for the development of research-oriented, food- and nutrition-related public-private partnerships. During the daylong working meeting, participants discussed and revised 12 previously published guidelines to ensure integrity in the conduct of food and nutrition research collaborations among public, nonprofit, and private sectors. They agreed to reconvene periodically to reassess the public-private partnership principles. This article presents the guiding principles and potential benefits, outlines key discussion points, and articulates points of agreement and reservation.

Food and Nutrition Board update: What do SNAP allotments, physical fitness, and obesity prevention have in common?

The Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board had a productive year, with important expert committee reports on the Supplemental Food Assistance Program, physical fitness, and accelerating obesity prevention efforts that provided grounding for dietary guidance and nutrition policies and programs. This summary describes Food and Nutrition Board activities, including current thinking on dietary reference intakes. The summary also highlights consensus reports on defining and measuring Supplemental Food Assistance Program benefit adequacy and on physical fitness and health outcomes in youth. In addition, current and new activities related to obesity prevention and care are addressed. What do these activities have in common? All adhere to the Institute of Medicine report model by filling gaps and by being analytical, evidence-based, and challenging.

Perspectives and progress on upper levels of intake in the United States.

In the US, recognition of the appropriateness of including an upper level of intake estimate among reference values for nutrient substances was made in 1994 when the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) specified the inclusion of an "upper safe" level among its proposed reference points for intake of nutrients and food components. By 1998, a group convened by the IOM had established a risk assessment model for establishing upper intake levels for nutrients, eventually termed the tolerable upper intake levels (UL). A risk assessment framework (i.e., a scientific undertaking intended to characterize the nature and likelihood of harm resulting from human exposure to agents in the environment), as developed in other fields of study, was a logical fit for application to nutrients. But importantly, whereas risk assessment requires that information be organized in specific ways, it does not require specific scientific evaluation methods. Rather, it makes transparent and documents the decision-making that occurs given the available data and the related uncertainties. During the 1990s and beyond, the various IOM committees charged with developing UL for a range of nutrients utilized the risk assessment framework, making modifications and adjustments as dictated by the data. This experience informed the general organizational process for establishing UL but also underscored the dearth of data. For many reasons, undertaking scientific research and obtaining data about the effects of excessive intake have been challenging. It is time to consider creative and focused strategies for modeling, simulating, and otherwise studying the effects of excessive intake of nutrient substances.