Total diet studies (TDS) are recognised as a cost-effective approach in estimating dietary exposure to chemicals in food. It has been advised that candidate foods for inclusion in TDS analysis should represent a large part of the typical diet to estimate accurately the exposure of a population group. To date a variety of approaches have been used to determine which foods should be included in a core TDS food list, with no agreed method. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare four of these approaches by creating TDS food lists for adult populations in Europe using summary statistics data from the EFSA Comprehensive Food Consumption Database. Both a food group approach and a total diet approach were employed, and foods were selected for inclusion in the TDS food lists if they met the criteria as defined by consumption weight and/or a 5% consumer rate. Using all four approaches the representation of the diet across the TDS food lists was > 85%. The food group approach showed a slight advantage in diet representation, but produced considerably longer TDS food lists in comparison with the total diet approach. The addition of a 5% consumer rate to both approaches had little impact on results. In conclusion, the total diet approach may act as a more cost-effective approach in comparison with the food group approach while still achieving comprehensive results in the creation of core TDS food lists.