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Qatar’s Food Safety Laboratory is a new IAEA Collaborating Centre for Food Safety and Control

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The official designation of the Food Safety Laboratory of the Ministry of Public Health, Qatar as an IAEA collaborating centre took place on 30 May 2024

The official designation of the Food Safety Laboratory of the Ministry of Public Health, Qatar as an IAEA collaborating centre took place on 30 May 2024. (Photo: IAEA)

Qatar’s Food Safety Laboratory has become a new IAEA Collaborating Centre on Food Safety and Control, signalling a strong commitment from Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health and the IAEA to improve food safety systems in countries around the world, in response to increased international demand.

“With a high burden of food safety and need for a concerted effort, the demand for research and development and the application of their outcomes to building testing and surveillance capabilities in Member States is now higher than ever before” said Najat Mokhtar, Deputy Director General (DDG) and Head of the IAEA Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications.

 “Research and scientific findings are required to inform good management decisions. We cannot do this work alone hence the Collaborating Centres which enhance the IAEA’s ability to serve Member States. We need more and more  Collaborating Centres, and I am glad that The State of Qatar has voluntarily stepped forward to join the scheme” added the IAEA DDG.

The designation of the new  Collaborating Centre took place in May during the International Symposium on Food Safety and Control held at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

With over six decades of success in advancing the use of nuclear and related techniques to improve food safety and control, the IAEA, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Agriculture, is uniquely positioned to support the development and advancement of food safety and control measures.

“We are pleased that following a request by the Assistant Minister of Public Health, the Secretariat undertook a mission to Qatar to conduct a gap analysis and determine suitability of the FSL as a collaborating centre” said  Jassim Yaaqob Al-Hamadi, Resident Representative, Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the IAEA.

 IAEA term says it should just be Qatar, though "the State of Qatar" is admitted.

The FSL has strong human resource capabilities that will benefit the new collaborating centre.

The FSL is strategically located to support IAEA’s food safety work in the Middle East and other parts of Asia. It is also not far from Africa, where a lot of support is needed. In March 2023, Qatar hosted the second part of the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). During the decennial conference, declarations were made to act and support LDCs, including financial support. Many countries will now be able to benefit from the new collaborating centre to improve their food safety and public health.

This new collaboration also builds on recent practical arrangements the State of Qatar signed with the IAEA in the area of human health and food safety. The FSL is also evaluating how to support Atoms4Food, a new initiative led by the FAO and the IAEA to boost food security and tackle growing hunger with tailored solutions.  

The new collaborating centre will support research and development in a range of food safety quality aspects including but not limited to chemical and biological hazards and authenticity testing, technology transfer, networking and benchmarking of functioning, robust and sustainable food safety control systems. With its state of the art facilities and several well trained personnel as well as accreditations for almost 100 methods , the FSL presents a unique collaborating centre that covers several components of the food safety and quality chain that can greatly benefit many countries.

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