RIKILT is a Dutch independent institute conducting research in the food chain. The institute with its 175 staff focuses on research on the safety and health of food with a multidisciplinary approach. Members of RIKILT staff are members of (inter)national expert committees regarding feed and food safety. RIKILT has been recognised by the Dutch Accreditation Board (STERLAB) for ‘testing’ and for ‘Research and Development”. At RIKILT the chemical, biochemical and microbial quality of feeds and foods such as feed ingredients, compound feeds, fodders, dairy products, fruits, vegetables and meat is ascertained. Prohibited substances such as growth hormones, residues of veterinary drugs, animal proteins, pesticides and environmental contaminants are measured, to determine whether they met statutory limits or company standards. RIKILT has several specialisation : (i) EU-regulations, pre-accession, general legislation; (ii) Food analysis; (iii) Quality Control and Management; (iv) Exposure Assessment, statistical modelling; (v) Regulatory affairs (veterinary drugs, feed additives, animal proteins, biotech products, pesticides, fertilizers); (vi) International cooperation in large projects and networks (e.g. EU Thematic network Entransfood, Simbagfeed, Stratfeed, Trace, Heatox, Safefood); (v) Membership in international bodies concerning food and feed safety, toxicology, health: Codex Alimentarius, CEMA, CEN, EFSA panels). It has been the leader of the development of the ARIES decision support system and participate to the organisation of several validation studies.
Expertise in feedsafety projects
FEEDSAFETY platform (CRA-W – IRMM – RIKILT) – Network gathering institutes working to the development and validation of analytical methods for the feed sectors (http://www.feedsafety.org/) – project coordinator
NRL-AP – National Reference Laboratory for Animal Proteins (http://www.crl.cra.wallonie.be )
SAFEED-PAP (FP6) – Detection of presence of species-specific processed animal proteins in animal feed (https://safeedpap.feedsafety.org/) – project partner
SIMBAGFEED (FP5) – Screening and Identification Methods for official control of Banned Antibiotics and Growth promoters in Feedingstuffs (http://www.rikilt.wur.nl/NL/onderzoek/Projecten/EU+projecten/Output+SIMBAG+FEED/) – project coordinator
SRMTEST (FP5) – Detection of specified risk animal tissue in cooked meat products (http://www.srmtest.info )
STRATFEED (FP5) – Strategies and methods to detect and quantify mammalian tissues in feedingstuffs (http://www.stratfeed.cra.wallonie.be ) – project partner
Project team
Contact
Dr L. van Raamsdonk
RIKILT
Bornsesteeg 45
NL-6700 AE
Wageningen
The NetherlandsTel : +31 (0)31 747 54 51
Fax : +31 (0)31 741 77 17
Email : leo.vanraamsdonk@wur.nlWeb site : http://www.rikilt.wur.nl/UK
Staff
Leo Van Raamsdonk, Henk Aarts, Monique Bremer, Jacob de Jong, Wilma Hekman, Anniek Kemmers-Voncken, Jef Vliege