09/06/2010

The Executive Director of AESAN, Ana Troncoso, today spoke at the National Food Centre (CNA), at the Workshops on Food Testing, aimed at laboratories involved in official food safety control in Spain. These Workshops, as in previous editions, attract a wide audience due to their high quality content. On this occasion they were attended by almost 180 people, from laboratories from practically every autonomous region, as well as from other state laboratories. The Workshops, which run from 8 to 11 June 2010, aim to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge on advances in analytical methods in food control, as well as the criteria to be applied in control systems.

“The aim of all laboratories involved in official control is to ensure that the highest quality standards are used in their work. In 2009 the CNA continued to work towards increasing the scope of its test credentials by generating methodologies which are as generic or generalised as possible so as to be able to meet the varied requests for analysis in the multiple areas of official control”, the Executive Director of AESAN said during the opening.

“A fundamental part of the activities entrusted to a reference laboratory is to organise and take an active role in inter-comparative trials as a basic tool for validating our methods”, she said, which are necessary to maintain accreditation and the quality system. In this respect, the Executive Director reminded her audience that last year, the CNA organised 18 such trials and took part in over 100 with many other official control laboratories.

“Thorough consumer protection through the provision of safe and healthy foods is based on a process which is sustained by scientific knowledge with regard to developing diagnostic and analytical methods, and mechanisms for monitoring and surveillance”, she added.