18 The nutrition handbook for food processors in the European HBSs. The project has been successful in developing the method ology for harmonising food, demographic and socio-economic data collected in he HBSs of fourteen European countries(Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom). The project is coordinated by the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Medical School, University of eece The initial objective of the daFne project was the creation of comparable categories of food and socio-demographic information, allowing intra- and inter country comparisons of nutritional habits and the identification of socio- demographic variables affecting them. Although several socio-demographic char- acteristics are recorded in the HBSs and many of them are included in the final roster of variables to be studied, the DAFNE team is currently focusing on local ity(degree of urbanisation of the area where the household was situated), edu cation and occupation of household head, as well as on household composition These variables are used for the characterisation of the socio-demographic stati of the household The development of a food classification system that would allow international comparisons of dietary patterns was a central element in the development of an HBS-based European food databank One of the intermediate results of the harmonisation procedure is the development of the DaFNE food classification system, which allows the categorisation of HBS-collected food data into 56 detailed subgroups. These subgroups can be aggregated at various levels ending up at 15 main food groups(Lagiou et al, 2001). The feasibility studies under- taken in the context of the DAFNE project demonstrated that the prospect of usin HBSS for the assessment of dietary information is realistic and the potential con siderable, assuming political will, administrative support and a minimal adjust ment in infrastructure(Trichopoulou and Lagiou, 1997b, 1998). In order to evaluate the nutritional information available in the dafne data bank, a comparison of individualised HBS data with food consumption values derived from specially designed IDSs has recently been undertaken(Naska et al 2001a, 2001b; Vasdekis et al, 2001). Preliminary results of this analysis show that there is considerable scope in using the daFne databank to achieve an average estimate of the populations'food habits, to run international comparisons and to complement with regular information the data collected in the specially designed individual dietary surveys 2.5.2 The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (the EPIC study) The EPIC is a multi-centre prospective cohort study with the aim of investigat ing the complex relation between nutrition and other lifestyle and environmental factors in relation to the incidence of and mortality from cancer and other di eases(Riboli, 1992). The study is being undertaken in ten European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain,in the European HBSs. The project has been successful in developing the method￾ology for harmonising food, demographic and socio-economic data collected in the HBSs of fourteen European countries (Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom). The project is coordinated by the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Medical School, University of Athens, Greece. The initial objective of the DAFNE project was the creation of comparable categories of food and socio-demographic information, allowing intra- and inter￾country comparisons of nutritional habits and the identification of socio￾demographic variables affecting them. Although several socio-demographic char￾acteristics are recorded in the HBSs and many of them are included in the final roster of variables to be studied, the DAFNE team is currently focusing on local￾ity (degree of urbanisation of the area where the household was situated), edu￾cation and occupation of household head, as well as on household composition. These variables are used for the characterisation of the socio-demographic status of the household. The development of a food classification system that would allow international comparisons of dietary patterns was a central element in the development of an HBS-based European food databank One of the intermediate results of the harmonisation procedure is the development of the DAFNE food classification system, which allows the categorisation of HBS-collected food data into 56 detailed subgroups. These subgroups can be aggregated at various levels ending up at 15 main food groups (Lagiou et al, 2001). The feasibility studies under￾taken in the context of the DAFNE project demonstrated that the prospect of using HBSs for the assessment of dietary information is realistic and the potential con￾siderable, assuming political will, administrative support and a minimal adjust￾ment in infrastructure (Trichopoulou and Lagiou, 1997b, 1998). In order to evaluate the nutritional information available in the DAFNE data￾bank, a comparison of individualised HBS data with food consumption values derived from specially designed IDSs has recently been undertaken (Naska et al, 2001a, 2001b; Vasdekis et al, 2001). Preliminary results of this analysis show that there is considerable scope in using the DAFNE databank to achieve an average estimate of the populations’ food habits, to run international comparisons and to complement with regular information the data collected in the specially designed individual dietary surveys. 2.5.2 The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (the EPIC study) The EPIC is a multi-centre prospective cohort study with the aim of investigat￾ing the complex relation between nutrition and other lifestyle and environmental factors in relation to the incidence of and mortality from cancer and other dis￾eases (Riboli, 1992). The study is being undertaken in ten European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, 18 The nutrition handbook for food processors