The UK cohort was recruited from the general population; from the nationwide population in the Oxford cohort and from Norwich and East Anglia in the Cambridge cohort. Recruitment commenced in 1993 and was largely completed by the end of 1998.
Cambridge: Details of the cohort and publications are available at the EPIC-Norfolk website.
Oxford: The EPIC-Oxford Cohort contains 57,500 participants, men and women aged 20 to 97 who were recruited through medical general practices or by post between 1993 and 1999. Recruitment was designed to include a high proportion of non meat-eaters and 50% of non meat-eaters was achieved. From four simple dietary questions: Do you eat meat?; Do you eat fish?; Do you eat dairy products?; Do you eat eggs? it was possible to categorize each participant into one of four dietary groups: meat-eater, fish-eater (eats no meat but does eat fish), vegetarian (eats no meat or fish but does eat dairy products and/or eggs) and vegan (eats no animal products). For logistical reasons it was not possible to collect blood samples from each of the participants, but 30% was achieved.

Cambridge: Follow-up for the identification of cancer cases and deaths is based on cancer and mortality registries and non cancer end points from hospital admissions. By the end of 2001, 2830 participants had died and more than 3300 new cancer cases had been diagnosed.
Oxford: All participants are followed-up by record linkage with the UK's National Health Service Central Register which provides information on cancer diagnoses and deaths. By the end of 2005, over 2300 participants had died and 3600 new cancer cases had been diagnosed. Follow-up questionnaires are mailed to each participant about everyfive years following recruitment, designed to provide information on changes in lifestyle, diet and health. Over 33,000 participants have responded to the second follow-up in 2007.