Project

Harmonisation, standardisation and advising product composition

Work is in progress in the EU on the formulation and harmonisation of the Member States' national and international legislation on food safety and of the associated analytical methods. Substantive, supporting knowledge is required for the policy relating to product composition monitoring. The RIKILT Institute for Food Safety will supply this knowledge via this project.

Objective

The objective of this project is to provide for the normalisation/harmonisation of examination/analytical methods for product composition. This will also combat fraud. In addition, the authorities will be provided support in the form of substantive knowledge.

Participation and visibility in a variety of harmonisation and normalisation platforms provide for a Dutch influence on the process. This influence is of importance during the formulation and amendment of legislation and the definition and specification of methods. The project also makes a contribution to exchanges of knowledge and procedures with other Member States and market parties. This is, for example, an issue with practical problems in the implementation or the selection of counter laboratories in the Netherlands or abroad.

Method

The project focuses on continual participation in national and international working groups and committees to exert an influence on and provide advice about analytical methods and their application in national and international regulations. In 2014, this relates to the following activities focused on the dairy, organic food, allergens in food and food fraud themes.

Advice provided in 2014: When so required, advice on the harmonisation and normalisation of regulations is provided to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, Dutch Dairy Board (PZ), Netherlands Controlling Authority for Milk and Milk products (COKZ) and EU Member States.

Project results

The objective of the project is to provide the target group information about and insight into newly-developed research methods at an early stage and to make a contribution to the amendment of existing legislation and formulation of new legislation.