Results from national testing programs on the occurrence of chemical contaminants in food and feed - Belgium

In the framework of Articles 23 and 33 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 EFSA has received from the European Commission a mandate (M-2010-0374) to collect all available data on the occurrence of chemical contaminants in food and feed. These data are used in EFSA’s scientific opinions and reports on contaminants in food and feed.  

The presence of unauthorised substances or chemical contaminants in food may pose a risk factor for public health and can cause a negative impact on the quality of food. 

Commission Recommendations and Regulations on occurrence monitoring are in place for several contaminants of interest, some of which can be found here below:  

• Commission Regulation (EU) 625/2017, on the application of food and feed law 

• Commission Regulation (EC) 1881/2006, on maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs 

• Commission Regulation (EC) 2017/2158 establishing mitigation measures and benchmark levels for the reduction of the presence of acrylamide in food 

These datasets contain the results of sampling that was designed according to national testing programs for a variety of contaminants in food and feed, as reported under the Chemical Monitoring Data Collection 2020, split by sampling year (data element ‘sampY’). 

More details are available in the ‘Call for continuous collection of chemical contaminants occurrence data in food and feed | EFSA (europa.eu)’. 

REPORTING AUTHORITIES CONTRIBUTING TO EACH DATA COLLECTION: 

OCC-CHEMMON2020 – Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research