Food safety, safety assessments, trace elements in food
Topic 2: New foods – Fostering innovations in food design, processing and supply via demand-and-supply reorientation
Within the selected Topic, we offer our expertise in trace elements. The Trace Elements unit in Sciensano, the Belgian federal public health institute. The unit acts as the Belgian National Reference Laboratory for trace elements in food, feed and materials in contact with food. As experts in this matter, we determine trace element levels in the food chain and the environment. We also assess the human dietary exposure to these elements and their elemental speciation, and we evaluate the associated risks to health.
To this aim, we develop, optimise, validate and accredit methods for the analysis of trace elements and their species, using the most advanced techniques. Furthermore, we develop and validate methods for the analysis of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles in food and food additives. Our analytical methods enable the detection and quantification of various trace elements in diverse matrices. We primarily focus on those elements that can adversely affect consumers’ health. Examples are cadmium in spinach, lead in infant foods, inorganic arsenic in rice and mercury in fish.
Sciensano is the scientific reference in the field of public health in Belgium. It is a federal research institute that operates under the authority of the federal minister of Public Health and the federal minister of Agriculture of Belgium. For 112 years, the institute has supported health policy and policymaking through innovative research, analyses, monitoring activities and expert advice. More specifically, on the basis of scientific research, Sciensano formulates recommendations and solutions in respect of priorities for a proactive health policy at Belgian, European and international levels. Sciensano has more than 900 staff members that work day after day to achieve the motto: healthy all lifelong.