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Information System for Agriculture and Food Research

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Laboratory for Food Safety - Maisons-Alfort and Boulogne-sur-Mer

Institution

Description

The Food Safety Laboratory is located in Maisons-Alfort, with a second site in Boulogne-sur-Mer. It is specialised in the biological and chemical hazards which have an effect on food safety and quality. In its area of expertise it is involved in fulfilling ANSES’s missions with regard to reference, research, monitoring, epidemiology, and scientific & technical expert assessment.
The Maisons-Alfort site hosts 120 professionals specialising in food safety; the Boulogne-sur-Mer site has over 20 staff members who contribute to the quality and hygiene of fishery and aquaculture products.
The Food Safety Laboratory provides scientific expertise to help in public decision-making which is both general, for the safety of foodstuffs, and more specific, for certain processing industries.

The Laboratory's work is focussed on biological hazards (bacteria, viruses, parasites) and chemical hazards (toxins, metals, pesticides, organic pollutants, histamine) found or likely to be found in foods, especially during the distribution and consumption stages:

 it develops knowledge on the identification of hazards found in foods,
 it develops methods for detecting, characterising and measuring them,
 it analyses their causes and development factors,
 it helps monitor them, particularly to report the emergence or re-emergence of certain organisms and compounds,
 it helps standardise and draft regulations for specific methods and criteria governing these hazards,
 it contributes to the assessment of the related risks by contributing to quantitative risk analyses, and by providing data  on the prevalence of a biological hazard or the occurrence of a chemical hazard,
 it examines how practices and processes influence the expression of food hazards and specifically focuses on the effectiveness of control measures undertaken throughout a food's lifetime (from the farm to the fork) and quality indicators related to hygiene.

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Activities

  • Research
  • Research Support

Contact

Laboratory for Food Safety - Maisons-Alfort and Boulogne-sur-Mer
14, rue Pierre et Marie Curie
94701 Maisons-Alfort Cedex
France
France

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