Joint stance against food fraud

To ensure that growing global trade in food, consumer goods and cosmetics does not become a risk for consumers, uniformly high safety standards should apply everywhere. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine (CAIQ) have set themselves the goal of establishing these all over the world.

The BfR and CAIQ have now agreed on a cooperation project to this end. The contract was signed in Beijing on 16 April 2019 by BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel and von Li Xinshi, President of CAIQ. "Just how important international scientific cooperation is can be seen from the example of food fraud," says Hensel.  "With good detection methods, we can track down criminals who bring spoilt or wrongly declared goods onto the market, thus endangering consumer health".

The BfR has had an agreement with CAIQ for ten years, which has now been renewed to mark the anniversary. CAIQ is one of the most important institutions on questions of food safety. It is involved among other things in the development and standardisation of new test methods on a scientific basis.

With the agreement, both sides want to consolidate their scientific cooperation. Joint research projects, seminars and workshops are planned along with a scientific exchange programme. One of the areas of main focus is the development of methods for the quality testing of foods, cosmetics and consumer goods.

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.