For more animal protection and food safety - jointly with the Netherlands

Developing new scientific methods for risk assessment and risk communication and more cooperation in the area of animal protection - these are the goals of the newly reached agreement between the Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR) and the Dutch authority RIVM, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. At the centre of the agreement which was signed in Utrecht on 21 June 2016 is extensive mutual exchange of scientific expertise. "The RIVM and BfR have been collaborating on a project basis for many years", says BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel on the occasion of the signing of the agreement. "In the area of scientific risk assessment of mixtures of substances and animal protection in particular we want to engage in even closer cooperation in future."

Bild von der Unterzeichnung des Kooperationsvertrages mit dem RIVM

The RIVM and BfR are cooperation partners on different scientific projects in the area of exposure estimation as well as the development of animal experiment-free test strategies for improved assessment of the toxicity of mixtures of different toxicologically relevant food ingredients, contaminants and pesticide residues.

In future, the BfR will additionally support the continued development of an RIVM software for the mathematical modelling of consumer exposure to chemical substances in products.

The cooperation agreement provides for scientific cooperation in the area of animal protection as well. The German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R) which is based at the BfR will build up scientific exchange with the Netherlands’ Knowledge Centre on Alternatives to Animal Use (NKCA) - a joint establishment of the RIVM and the University of Utrecht.

The agreed intensified cooperation serves the purpose of supporting the scientific goals of both institutions in the area of research and development of assessment strategies and the avoidance of duplicity. The insights gained as part of the cooperation between the two institutions will be made available to the scientific community and the public.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) is an independent research institute of the Dutch Ministry of Health. The Institute conducts its own research and advises the government on questions of public health, consumer and environmental protection.

About the BfR

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientifically independent institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. It advises the Federal Government and Federal Laender on questions of food, chemical and product safety. The BfR conducts its own research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.

This text version is a translation of the original German text which is the only legally binding version.


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