| Abstract |
For 2000, the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W), the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC-IRMM) and RIKILT - Institute of Food Safety have acquired expertise in the development and validation of analytical methods for the detection, identification and quantification of animal proteins and contaminants in feedingstuffs. In 2001, they worked together in the framework of the FP5 European Project STRATFEED, “Strategies and methods to detect and quantify mammalian tissues in feedingstuffs”, coordinated by CRA-W. At the end of this project, in 2004, the 1st international symposium entitled “Food and feed safety in the context of prion diseases” was organised.
After this project, different interlaboratory studies and training sessions took place. In May 2006, the three groups decided to join their efforts to create the Feed Safety Platform. This platform aims to gather institutes and stakeholders working to the use, development and validation of analytical methods for the feed sector. In December 2006, the three institutes met again for a new FP6 European Project SAFEED-PAP, “Detection of presence of species-specific processed animal proteins in animal feed”, coordinated by CRA-W.
In the framework of this project, several computer tools have been developed to provide the dissemination of the results and the communication inside and outside the Feed Safety Platform and the SAFEED-PAP project.
The Website (www.feedsafety.org) provides an overview of all major feed safety issues, viz. animal by-products, feed additives, banned additives, GMOs, veterinary drugs, botanical impurities, mycotoxins, heavy metals and dioxins. It includes aspects on legislation, analytical methods, available tools and publication libraries. This website also offers links to European and national projects related to Feed Safety, among others SAFEED-PAP (Detecting animal proteins in feed), CONffIDENCE (Contaminants in food and feed: inexpensive detection for control of exposure), the COST action Feed for Health (FA 0802). Links to relevant European Union Reference Laboratories, such as the EURL-AP (European Union Reference Laboratory for animal proteins in feedingstuffs) are also given. In this website, the news and events are fed regularly by the web correspondents. An electronic newsletter, dedicated to people involved in the feed sector, is biannually published and dispatched.
To provide a space where the researchers can communicate, share documents and work together on a feed safety issue, an Intranet has been created. Different tools and functions are available as Feed safety mailing lists, alert system and discussion boards. Sub-intranets allow to the project coordinators to manage their projects.
The Feed safety staff is ready to collaborate with you, offering a complete platform with all the communication tools useful for the dissemination of your activities. We are open to receive your contributions to “feed” the feed safety platform. |
| Authors |
Vermeulen, P., Boix, A., Van Raamsdonk, L., Berben, G., Von Holst, C., De Jong, J., Dardenne, P., Baeten, V. |
