INTRODUCTION AND EXTENDED ABSTRACTS: Decision-Making for Recommendations and Communication Based on Totality of Food-Related Research, an ILSI North America-sponsored Workshop at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, December 15, 2008

The extended abstracts in this report are based on presentations from the Workshop on Decision-Making for Dietary Recommendations and Communication Based on Totality of Food-Related Research, which was organized and sponsored by the Technical Committees on Food and Chemical Safety, Lipids, and Carbohydrates of the North American Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI North America) and partially supported by the American Meat Institute Foundation. The workshop was held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, on December 15, 2008. The aims of this workshop were to educate the nutrition and food safety communities about current practices in the field of epidemiology regarding the interpretation of weak associations and to stimulate a dialogue around improving the transparency and approaches to the use of epidemiological data in combination with other types of data for the development of public health recommendations. The workshop provided an overview of epidemiological methods, provided case-study examples of applications, and reviewed appropriate interpretation and application of epidemiological data and decision making for recommendations.