It is difficult to pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch TV without hearing at least one story about Food Safety. All across Europe, consumers are increasingly concerned about the safety and wholesomeness of the food they eat. It seems that there is an endless stream of bad-news stories. Consumers need reassurance about the microbiological safety of their food, as a result of concerns about BSE, Salmonella, etc. Consumers also need reassurance about the chemical safety of their food, as a result of concerns about dioxins and pesticide & antibiotic residues.

The European Union (EU) actively supports food safety and food safety research throughout the EU in a number of ways. One way is through its policy of requiring all Member States to test food of animal origin for the presence of residues of licensed veterinary medicines. Member States are required to ensure that residual concentrations of legal medicines fall within internationally accepted norms. The EU also requires all Member States to ensure that food of animal origin does not contain residues of unauthorised substances, which should not be present at any concentration in the food that we eat.

Another mechanism adopted by the EU is the funding of multi-national research projects through its Framework Programmes. One such project funded under the 5th Framework Programme was FoodBRAND (QLK1-1999-00142) (Bound Residues And Nitrofuran Detection.). This 4 year project, co-ordinated by Dr Glenn Kennedy of AFBI Chemical Surveillance Branch in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast, was launched in January 2000 to improve the methods used to detect and control possible abuse of the nitrofuran antibiotics in livestock production. These drugs were banned from use in food animal production in the EU because of concerns about the safety of their residues. The FoodBRAND project aimed to improve the ability of laboratories across the EU to be able to detect residues of these drugs.