The Estonian Environmental Research Centre of the Ministry of the Environment participated as a leader of a working group in the creation of the SAFEFOODNET chemical food safety network which is designed for the EU member states. The EU’s SAFEFOODNET food quality and safety research project (Chemical Food Safety Network for the enlarging Europe) was launched in 2005. “The goal of the project was to integrate the activity and information of old and new member states in the field of chemical food safety and to find experts for the recently founded European Food Safety Authority,” explained the head researcher of the Estonian Environmental Research Centre, Ott Roots, who also led one of the project’s working groups. Countries which participated in the project were Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey and Hungary. The first stage was the analysis and comparison of chemical food safety systems of the participating countries as on the basis of gathered data it became possible to give advice for the improvement of the systems. “The project activities were divided between five working groups: coordinating the entire project (managed by the representative of Italy), gathering data about the countries’ sources of dietary data (the representative of Poland), monitoring the chemical pollution of food (the representative of the Estonian Environmental Research Centre), updating the project’s homepage (the representative of the Czech Republic) and communicating information (the representative of Romania),” Roots counted. According to Roots the new member countries did not measure up as well as the old ones as in case of newcomers monitoring the occurrence of contaminants is not followed up by risk assessment and management. “However, the aim of risk assessment and management is to determine whether the substances identified can cause human illnesses," he noted. In addition, some countries lack certified food laboratories and due to insufficient equipment it is impossible to identify all harmful substances, especially persistent organic contaminants. “In Estonia it is possible to determine the occurrence of the majority of dangerous substances, such as heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, etc.,” said Roots. ”“However, dioxin and furan analyses are ordered from foreign laboratories as in a year we need only 25-35 such samples.” Now databases of all participants have been created. Also, a trans—European SAFEFOODNET network has been established which among other things will start to provide advice on food safety and introduce the good practices of the field. For further information visit the homage at http://www.safefoodnet.net. Additional information: Agnes Jürgens, |
