Analyses at the highest possible level

Producers and the food trade are legally bound to only put safe food onto the market. The official food control is responsible for controlling whether national and European laws are adhered to. The analyses necessary in this context are carried out by official laboratories on a national and European level.

The idea of the network of reference laboratories

Source: BVL

In order to reach a uniform application and implementation of the legal regulations in the field of food control, a hierarchically structured network of laboratories was created in the European Union, which is to guarantee a highly effective flow of information. At the head of this system there are, at present, more than 40 European Union Reference Laboratories with different fields of responsibility. In addition, in each EU Member State the corresponding National Reference Laboratories as well as numerous official routine control laboratories are established. It is the task of the EU Reference Laboratories (EURL) to achieve comparable measurement results by harmonising the proficiency of the official laboratories in the EU on a uniformly high level. The EURLs’ function in this context is to coordinate and give advice to the Member States. The National Reference Laboratories closely collaborate with the European Union Reference Laboratories and thus form a Europe-wide network.
The laboratory network actively contributes to the further strengthening of consumer protection and promotes inland as well as cross-border trade by the unification of standards.

Reference laboratories at the BVL

Group 5 "Analyses" at the BVL hosts one European Union and eight National Reference Laboratories. The reference laboratories coordinate and support the National Reference Laboratories in Europe and the official routine control laboratories in the federal states respectively. New standards for validation, quality assurance as well as for the optimisation and further development of methods are developed in the reference laboratories and made available to other laboratories by the BVL. Moreover the reference laboratories carry out animal studies on current issues of concern and organise projects. The reference laboratories gain an overview of the proficiency of the methods employed in the laboratories e.g. by regularly organising proficiency tests. Furthermore the reference laboratories provide recommendations on the implementation of community law.

In order to guarantee that food does not present a health risk, the use of veterinary drugs and pesticides in food production is regulated in a uniform manner throughout Europe. In this context a rough distinction can be made between substances which may be present in food in concentrations that are not harmful to health, and banned substances which must not be detectable in food at all. A general ban exists, for example, on the use of sexual hormones as growth promoters in food-producing animals or on the use of DDT and nitrofen in plant protection.

In addition to substances which are used purposefully, the controls also focus on contaminants, i.e. on unwanted or harmful substances which may get into the food accidentally in the course of the production process or via the environment.

In the field of veterinary drugs, meat, milk, eggs and honey are examined among other things, as well as samples from live animals (e.g. hair or urine). Fruit, vegetables and cereals are mainly analysed for pesticide residues, but also for heavy metals and mycotoxins (metabolic products from mould fungi).

Due to the globally increasing cultivation of genetically modified plants and the use of procedures of genetic engineering in the production of food and feed, the need for suitable detection methods for example for maize, rice, soya or processed products like bakery products, is also increasing. In this field as well, Europe-wide, uniform regulations are in force for the application of methods of sampling and analysis and of measures to be taken by the responsible control authorities.