FAO/IAEA Training and Reference Centre

General Information

The implementation of international standards/guidelines and recommendations to ensure the quality and safety of food, particularly under the provisions of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) - being enforced by the World Trade Organization, requires suitable laboratory facilities and adequately trained personnel to monitor the wide range of potential microbiological and chemical food contamination. Similarly, the enforcement of pesticide control legislation and international agreements, in particular the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides, requires analytical facilities to monitor the quality of pesticide products in trade and the level of pesticide residues in food and in the environment.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) therefore agreed to establish in 1998 an FAO/IAEA Training and Reference Centre for Food and Pesticide Control, located at the FAO/IAEA Agriculture and Biotechnology Laboratory, Seibersdorf, Austria. The Centre operates within the scope of the FAO/IAEA Programme in Food and Agriculture, Vienna, and the Food and Nutrition and Plant Production and Protection Programmes of FAO, Rome. The Centre has the following mandate:

"to assist Member States and their institutions to fulfil requirements to support the implementation of international standards/agreements relevant to food safety and control, the safe use of pesticide and sanitary and phytosanitary measures by providing training, quality assurance services and technology transfer".

The main objective of the Centre is to strengthen the analytical capability of Member States, in particular the developing countries, to control food quality and safety, and to bring the quality and use of pesticides up to international standards, as well as to provide analytical support services in these areas and in relevant phytosanitary and epizootic subjects - as described in the SPS Agreement. The following are examples of programmes and agreements which are supported by the Centre:

• FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission and its subsidiary bodies;
  
• SPS and TBT Agreements of the World Trade Organization;
  
• Programmes of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the International Office of Epizootic (OIE) related to plant and animal health measures in trade;
  
• The FAO International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides, and the Joint FAO/UNEP Prior Informed Consent Programme;
  
• The FAO’s programme on the development of Specification for Plant Protection Products;
  
• UNCED-related programmes on the management of toxic chemicals, including pesticides, especially in regard to contamination of the food supply;
  
• The International Conferences on Nutrition (ICN) Plan of Action related to protecting consumers through improved food quality and safety;
  
• The FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG), Council and Conference, which have repeatedly called for increased efforts to strengthen national capabilities in food control, including establishment of an international training centre;
  
• IAEA analytical quality assurance and control programme, which includes provisions of reference materials to IAEA and FAO Member States’ laboratories;
  
• The food and environmental contamination monitoring programmes of the FAO and the IAEA.

The activities of the Centre emphasize on training and standardizing analytical methods for determining microbiological, mycotoxin, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, toxic metal and radionuclide contamination of food and feed.