Since food contamination does not recognize country boundaries, regional coordination and cooperation among Member States, as well as relevant stakeholders – including decision makers- was regarded as an efficient and sustainable mechanism to foster safety and sustainability in food production. A such, regional food safety laboratory networks were put in place to share data and experiences and enable optimisation of the methodology for each individual participating institution. For instance, with the support of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre, a food safety laboratory network was established in the Latin America and the Caribbean region: the Red Analytica de Latino América y el Caribe (RALACA). This regional approach was strengthened by important scientific and technical contribution from institutes in Bulgaria, China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka.
The approaches developed under the initiative were published in 2018 in the book, “Integrated analytical approaches for pesticide management”. This collates inputs from 26 institutes in 12 countries as well as from the FAO/IAEA Joint Centre to provide generic guidelines on pesticide analysis and environmental monitoring. The analytical testing methodologies are summarized in a manual, “Analytical methods for agricultural contaminants”, comprising standard operating procedures for 30 analytical methods from 17 institutes in 7 countries and the FAO/IAEA Food and Environmental Protection Laboratory.