National Reference Centre for Authentic Food

Horse meat instead of beef or inferior oil instead of extra virgin olive oil – two examples of many in which the ingredients of foodstuffs do not correspond to the declaration on the packaging. By establishing the National Reference Centre for Authentic Food (NRZ-Authent) at MRI, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture has taken a crucial step towards ensuring the authenticity of foodstuffs.

The factors determining whether food is authentic are the species of animal or plant, the method of production (e.g., ecological or conventional production), its geographical origin, and potentially existing value-adding substances such as omega-3 fatty acids. In the case of food fraud, food is intentionally adulterated for financial gain. The European Union (EU) estimates that this causes global economic damage of some 30 billion euros per year. Importantly, food fraud is not a trivial offence – irrespective of whether or not the fraud poses a threat to consumer health.

EU Regulation: the fight against food fraud

The Regulation (EU) 2017/625 stipulates the requirements food control authorities must observe and recommends establishing European reference centres for the authenticity and integrity of the food chain. By establishing NRZ-Authent at MRI, Germany has set up a reference centre of this kind at national level to bolster the fight against food fraud. Through its various activities, NRZ-Authent primarily supports food control authorities in Germany. Additionally, its engagement in collaborative activities at European and international level is essential for cross-border action against food fraud.

NRZ-Authent: structure

NRZ-Authent comprises the following task areas:

• Knowledge transfer: expert network and information sharing
  One of NRZ-Authent’s core tasks is to collate specialist knowledge on food authenticity and share it with food control authorities. This is done by means of a network of experts, data sharing services and regular training events.
• Data management: databases, analyses and queries
  NRZ-Authent also focuses on developing and providing analytical and knowledge databases and their accompanying user interfaces as well as statistical analyses.
• Analytical expertise: developing and validating methods
  A further important work area at NRZ-Authent includes the development and validation of analytical methods to test the authenticity of foodstuffs for subsequent use by the laboratories of the food control authorities.
• Provision of reference material
  NRZ-Authent itself does not store reference material but rather provides contacts to reference material collections. Additionally, at MRI’s own pilot plants, NRZ-Authent can produce food products with defined amounts of ‘adulterants’, which can then be used for method validation.

NRZ-Authent: sites

NRZ-Authent team members are located at each of the four MRI sites with its headquarters in Kulmbach. Through close collaborations with MRI’s institutes that focus on particular groups of foodstuffs, NRZ-Authent can capitalise on the expertise in the various food groups (meat, fish, milk, cereals, oils, fruit, vegetables) as well as their broad analytical instrumentation.