CEN activities in relation to food safety are in line with the European Commission objective to achieve the highest possible level of health protection for the consumers of Europe's food.
CEN has produced more than 400 European Standards, mainly for methods of sampling and analysis, with a current work programme of more than 100 work items developed by seven technical committees:
Specifically, CEN Technical Committee 275 has published more than 100 standards, including methods in microbiology (e.g. detection and enumeration of salmonella or listeria); determination of residues of heavy metals, contaminants and pesticides; determination of aflatoxins, ochratoxins, biotoxins; and detection of irradiated food and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Ten European Standards for the detection of irradiated foodstuffs have been adopted as General CODEX Alimentarius methods.
European Commission Mandates
Part of CEN activities in support of food safety are related to European Commission Mandates:
M/315 Standardization Mandate in the field of method of analysis for animal feedingstuffs- M/381 Standardization Mandate in the field of methods of analysis of foodstuffs concerning food hygiene
- M/382 Standardization Mandate in the field of method of analysis for animal feedingstuffs
- M/383 Standardization Mandate in the field of method of analysis for mycotoxins in food
- M/422 Standardization Mandate in the field of method of analysis for heavy metals ans iodine in food
- M/463 Standardization Mandate in the field of method of analysis for food contaminants
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) Workshops
CEN and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission regularly organize workshops in the field of Food and Feed:
2010
Joint CEN-JRC Workshop on Possibilities and requirements for the standardization of priertary methods of anaylisis - Brussels, 25 January 2010
2008
Joint CEN-JRC Workshop on horizontal issues for settings standards for the analysis of food and feed - Brussels, 25 November 2008: Presentations available.
2006
Joint CEN-JRC Workshop on Standardized Food and Analytical Methods: Information Exchange between CEN Technical Committees and the European Commission, Brussels, 9 March 2006: Presentations, summary and conclusions available.
Joint CEN-JRC Workshop on method validation in the field of food Brussels, 30 November 2006: Presentations available.
Past events
European food standardization - Open Day for European or international organizations, Brussels, 8 July 2004: presentations and report available