Community Reference Laboratory

To oversee this surveillance, the European Union has developed a system based on four fundamental cornerstones and controlled by four Community Reference Laboratories (Decision 91/664/EEC) hierarchically linked to a series of 36 authorized National Laboratories (Decision 93/257/EEC). The four cornerstones are a program of reference materials (53), a set of regularly updated mandatory minimum quality criteria for analytical techniques (54-57), a series of Reference Manuals (58, 59), and a continuous series of laboratory workshops plus a future Peer Review Group (60). 

The core of the European food measurement infrastructure is the system of European Community Reference Laboratories (CRLs) for residues. They are designed to improve and implement analytical methodologies and the scientibc basis of residue control. The CRLs act via networks of National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) for residues in food monitoring activities. The accreditation infrastructure is also an important component of the European Acquis... 

Center will be to elucidate the role of mycotoxin-contaminated food in human health and disease. In 1997, the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands was appointed as a Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for mycotoxins in animal products. ... 

Community Reference Laboratory for Food Contact Materials. Website at http //crl-fcm.jrc.it... 

A system of Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) and National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) is being established to achieve uniformity in the application and the performance of laboratories in the official control. This system has become fully functional in 2006 with the contact materials laboratory at the Joint Research Centre IHCP in Ispra acting as CRL (http //www.crl-fcm.jrc.it). 

In 2005, the EU Commission and the Community Reference Laboratory on Marine Biotoxins appointed another Working Group on Toxicology to give further advice on risk assessment of lipophilic marine algal toxins in bivalves [4]. 

EU Community Reference Laboratory on Marine Biotoxins Working Group on Toxicology, Cesenatico, October 24-25, 2005 (CRL WG 2005). 

In 2006, an interlaboratory exercise was organized by the Community Reference Laboratory for Marine Biotoxins (CRLMB) to evaluate its fitness for purpose for the Official Control of PSP toxins in the EU laboratories [41]. Eighteen European Union (EU) laboratories took part in the study. The participants had to analyze six bivalve mollusks samples with various PSP toxic profiles. The performance of the participant laboratories in the application of the 2005.06 AOAC Official... 

EU-CRLMB, Minutes of 1st Meeting of the Working Group on Toxicology, Community Reference Laboratory for Marine Biotoxins, Cesenatico, Italy, October 24— 25, 2005. 

In addition, it has become mandatory for companies or organizations wanting to have their biotech crops approved in Europe to provide reference material as well as a specific detection method. This is then tested and validated by ENGL, the European Network of GMO Laboratories, coordinated by the Community Reference Laboratory of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. This is laid down in Regulation 2003/1829/EC ... 

To facilitate controls on genetically modihed food and feed, appUcants for authorisation should propose appropriate methods for sampling, identihcation and detection, and deposit samples of the genetically modihed food and feed with the Authority methods of sampling and detection should be vaUdated, where appropriate, by the Community reference laboratory. ... 

Within the EU, in contrast with other areas of food control, there is no obligation to use standardized methods in the surveillance of veterinary medicine residues. Instead, a criterion-based approach applies that defines the performance characteristics that the methods used must meet." However, within the United States and some other countries methods are statutorily prescribed. The method must be able to detect the marker residue, specifically, mefabolife, sum of metabolites, or parent compound at/or below the appropriate regulatory limit (RL), as available. In the EU, the RL for authorized veterinary medicinal products is the maximum residue limit (MRL). The RL for prohibited and unauthorized substances is the minimum required performance limit (MRPL) or the reference point for action (RPA). ° In other cases, especially for unauthorized substances, the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) Recommended Concentration (RC)" can be applied, although this has no legal standing and is not a limit per se. 

Community Reference Laboratories (CRLs)O, Eurpoean Union (EU) (available at http //ec.europa.eu/food/ food/chemical safety/residues/GuidelineValidat ionScreening en.pdf accessed 10/10/2010). 

Carbadox and olaquindox were banned for use as growth promoters in the EU in 1999 because of concerns about their suspected carcinogenicity and mutagenicity. The responsible EU Community Reference Laboratory (CRL)... 

EU-Community Reference Laboratory for Pesticide Analysis using Single Residue Methods hosted at the Chemisches und Veterinaruntersuchimgsamt Stuttgart Schaflandstr. 3/2 70736 Fellbach Germany... 

Maria R. Velasco, EU-Community Reference Laboratory on Marine Biotoxins, Agencia Espariola de Seguridad Alimentaria, Vigo, Spain... 

F. M. Aarestrup, P. F. McDermott and G. Kahlmeter, Antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Clinical breakpoints and epidemiological cut-olf values. Newsletter of the Community Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance, 2007, 2, 3-5. 

EUROPEAN COMMUNITY REFERENCE LABORATORY (2008), European Community Reference Laboratory for Crustacean Diseases leaflet White Spot Disease, available from http //www.crustaceancrl.eu/diseasesAVhiteSpot.pdf [accessed 10 October 2011]. 

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