National Reference Centre for Authentic Food

The National Reference Centre for Authentic Food is a key contributor to safeguarding the authenticity of food and animal feed. In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/625, its main mission is to support the official food control authorities of the federal states and municipalities in uncovering fraudulent and misleading practices along the production and supply chains. Adulterations may involve misleading information on animal or plant species, the method of production, geographical origin or the value-determining ingredients in a product. One area of activity at the National Reference Centre for Authentic Food focuses on pooling specialist knowledge about the authenticity of food and animal feed and providing it to the official control authorities. Knowledge transfer capitalises on a network of experts and utilises data sharing services as well as regular specialist events as a means of dissemination. In a second focus area, the centre engages in developing and validating analytical methods for testing the authenticity of food and animal feed, with a view towards implementation by official food and feed surveillance. The National Reference Centre for Authentic Food also establishes and hosts analytical databases containing datasets on experimental results of reference samples. These resources enable the control authorities across Germany to conduct comparable assessments of food and animal feed samples.