Feed Centre - Feed Safety, Substance Transfer in the Food Chain

Substances found in feed can transfer to food of animal origin such as milk, meat, eggs, fish or honey – a process known as transfer. For some substances, this transfer is desirable, such as essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Similarly, fatty acids and amino acids from feed are metabolised by the animal and subsequently found in meat and other foods of animal origin. However, both a deficiency and an excess of certain essential nutrients in feed can adversely affect animal health or pose a risk to consumers when they consume the animal products.

Furthermore, secondary plant compounds, undesirable substances, and contaminants also enter food of animal origin via animal feed. The intake of plant toxins, such as alkaloids, and contaminants, such as dioxins and PFAS, poses a health risk not only to the animal itself, but also to the consumer, if these substances enter food of animal origin through transfer.

The Feed Centre’s work focuses on experimental studies of the transfer of substances along the food chain. The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment's own livestock farming provides the basis for these independent studies. The work of the interdisciplinary team of scientific staff with expertise in the fields of veterinary medicine, agricultural sciences, theoretical chemistry and mathematics, as well as animal care, focuses on the principle of "from stable to table", which states that the safety and quality of animal products directly depends on the quality of the feed. In line with the 3Rs principle, the Feed Centre's research focuses on developing and validating alternative and complementary methods, as well as refinement measures, for farm animals.

The work of the Feed Center serves as the basis for the preparation of expert reports and statements that provide scientific advice to the German government regarding feed safety, as well as animal health and the safety of food of animal origin. The government uses these scientific assessments as a basis for policy decisions concerning consumer protection.

The tasks of the Feed Centre include:

• Risk assessment of undesirable substances in feed and their impact on the safety of food of animal origin and animal health
• Preparation of expert reports and statements on feed contamination and on food contamination resulting from transfer from feed, as part of advisory services to federal and state authorities
• Statements on specific issues relating to feed safety, as well as on the feeding and nutritional physiology of pets and farm animals
• Management and conduct of animal experiments on farm animals to investigate the transfer of substances within the food chain
• Development and validation of alternative and complementary methods to animal experiments in farm animals
• Development and testing of refinement measures for farm animal experiments (e.g. medical training and AI-based stress detection)
• Development of toxicokinetic computer models for the transfer of undesirable substances based on data from in vivo, in vitro, ex vivo and in silico-experiments.
• Management of the agricultural and dairy farm, including the husbandry and breeding of farm animals, the provision of reference material, and the training and further education of animal caretakers

Research projects at the Feed Centre

• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Transfer experiments with dairy goats and broiler chickens, investigation of the distribution of PFAS in milk fractions, expansion of the toxicokinetic model for the transfer of PFAS in lactating ruminants
• Plant toxins: Feeding studies on the transfer of quinolizidine alkaloids from lupins into cow's milk, meta-study on the effect of lupin feeding on pigs, investigations on the fate of plant toxins from nightshades and datura during the silage process, detection of ragwort in hay using dogs
• Halogens: Studies on the transfer of bromide from algae to cow's milk
• Further development of the digital programme 'Contaminant Transfer Predictor' (ConTrans) for predicting the transfer of substances in the food chain
• Development and validation of in vitro digestion methods (3R)

The Feed Centre is supported in its work by the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Commission for Feed and Animal Nutrition, whose secretariat is managed by the Feed Centre.

The Feed Centre's scientific staff are active in various national and international working groups and committees, for example, in the working group "Carry over of unwanted substances in feed" of the German federal government, in various federal-state working groups such as the LAV-AFU, and in the EU Member States Initiative Group on PFAS. Through their scientific expertise, they support the development of practical solutions and action concepts. Additionally, the working group participates in national and international research projects.