Legal background

The concept of the European Union Reference Laboratories (EU-RLs) and National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) is layed down in the Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The overall objective of the CRLs and NRLs is to imporve the quality, accuracy and comparability of the results at the official control laboratories.

According to Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 the EU-RLs are responsible for:

• Providing NRLs with details of the analytical methods, including reference methods
• Organisation of proficiency tests for NRLs
• Developement and validation of new analytical methods
• Coordinating practical arrangements needed to apply new analytical methods and to inform NRLs of advances in this field
• Organisation of workshops and traing of laboratories in the Member States
• Performing analyses in case of disagreement between Member States
• Providing scientific and technical assistance to the Commission
• Providing the Commission with a work programme and an annual activity report
• Assisting NRLs of third countries

EU-RL for Dioxins and PCBs in Feed and Food

The State Institute for Chemical and Veterinary Analysis of Food (CVUA), Freiburg, has many years of experience in analytical residue analyses of dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in feed, food and human milk. The European UnionReference Laboratory for Dioxins and PCBs in Feed and Food is located at the CVUA Freiburg, Germany.
The services of the CRL is available to National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) within the EU-Member States.