WRITTEN QUESTION E-1389/02

by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(15 May 2002)

Subject: Examination of aquaculture products

The 2001 National Residue Monitoring Plan stipulated that aquaculture products should be examined for nitrofane (examination of the AOZ metabolites). The examination method has been developed for the EU by Dr Kennedy in Belfast (National Examining Laboratory).

However, this method is not being released, denying private laboratories access to it.

1. What view does the Commission take of the fact that an examination method developed using EU funding has been declared the private property of the developer, Dr Kennedy?

2. How are suppliers supposed to have their goods checked if there is no readily available examination method?

3. Does the Commission realise that differing measuring techniques may give rise to differing findings?

4. What measures does the Commission plan to take in connection with this matter?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(28 June 2002)

The most up to date analytical methods available for the detection of nitrofuran metabolites have been developed by a group of laboratories involved in the Community research project FoodBRAND (contract Nr QLK1-1999-00142). This is a 42 months project which started in January 2000 supported (at a level of 68 %) by the Commission, within the Community Quality of Life Programme and Management of Living Resources, Key Action 1 on Food, Nutrition and Health.

The FoodBRAND project aims at developing screening and confirmatory methods for tissue-bound residues and disseminating their findings to the Union National Reference Laboratories. The project includes participants from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Dr Kennedy is the project co-ordinator and not the owner (more information at http://www.afsni.ac.uk/foodbrand).

Due to the difficulties with the analysis of nitrofurans, the Commission has asked the participants in the FoodBRAND project to provide assistance to the Member States in order to improve the methods they currently apply. In doing so they will fulfil one of the objectives of the project earlier than initially foreseen.

It is common practice and also specified in Articles 16-18 of the general conditions of the model contract for Community supported research (http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/mod-cont.htm) that results of research, including analytical methods, are not distributed by the research team before they have been published in a specialized journal or presented at a scientific conference.

In this particular case, the method has not yet been published, nevertheless, the participants in the project agreed to assist the official control laboratories of the Member States provided that the method was not further distributed until its publication. Thereafter, the results of the project will be widely available.

It is correct that suppliers will not have access to this new method until it is published. However, nitrofurans are prohibited for use in food producing animals. Therefore suppliers need to ensure that these substances are not used by appropriate specifications in their contracts with producers.

The official control laboratories have the obligation to control the implementation of the prohibition of use of nitrofurans with the best available methods to ensure consumer protection. The Commission has taken all necessary steps to assist them in this task.

Analytical methods used for residue control should provide reliable results. The methods should be validated based on certain criteria to guarantee that the results obtained by different methods would be equivalent within certain margins accepted by the legislation.