OPERATIONAL DIRECTORATE FOOD,

MEDICINES AND CONSUMER SAFETY


Mission

The mission of the operational directorate Food, medicines and consumer safety is to carry out analytical chemical research to promote public health. Advanced analytical equipment is used to detect the presence of chemical substances in food, consumer non-durables and the environment. What kind of potentially damaging effects are people exposed to? What substances do people ingest daily? And what are the consequences for their health? This directorate provides reliable, usable and independent information about safe food, medicines and consumer goods to help promote public health.

Activities

The scientific research in this public service (PS) is organised into four scientific programmes which work in the following domains:

  • Medicines
  • Emergent chemical risks
  • Toxic and pharmacology residues
  • Pesticides

The service Medicines researches the quality of new, common medicines and their ingredients on the hand, and the health risks linked to the consumption of counterfeit and illegal treatments on the other hand.

The service Emergent chemical risks identifies and assesses the health risks linked to use of new chemical substances:

  • The Human bio-monitoring group assesses the health risks linked to the exposure of the public to chemicals, by direct analysis of human samples.
  • The Intake studies group looks at diet and how many damaging substances people ingest through their diet, as well as substances which migrate into food from packaging materials and other materials in contact with the food. But it also includes the impact of the intake of food additives in its scope.

The service Toxic and pharmacology residues identifies and researches marine toxins and toxins from bacteria in foods. This team also tracks residues of pharmacologically active substances in food, for example animal medicines.

The service Pesticides develops new methods of analysis for detecting pesticides in foods and the environment.

In addition, this directorate is working on building up various platforms equipped with the necessary advanced technical equipment:

  • the Liquid Chromatography Platform
  • the Platform for Liquid Chromatography linked to mass spectrometry (LC-MS)
  • the Gas Chromatography Platform
  • the Atomic Spectroscopy Platform
  • the Sample Preparation Platform

Clients and forms of collaboration

The Federal Agency for Safety in the Food Chain (AFSCA-FAVV) has listed the OD Food, medicines and consumer safety as the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Belgium for the detection of pesticides, marine toxins, PCBs, PAHs, animal medicines and hormonal substances in food and in materials which come into contact with food, In addition this PS is also the NRL for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg The Medicines service works with the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AFMPS-FAGG) and is also appointed by FAGG as the National Reference Laboratory for analysis of medicines. In addition the directorate works with theFPS for Public Health, Safety in the Food Chain and the Environment to carry out intake studies on additives, and other research contracts.