Organisation Chart

Staff Council

Vice President

Toxicology of Consumer Products

Unit 71

Unit 71 carries out toxicological assessments of substances in order to identify and prevent health risks arising from the use of consumer articles, cosmetics and tobacco products, as well as other consumer products.

Nutritional Risks, Allergies and Novel Foods

Unit 53

The main task of this Unit is the nutritional-physiological/nutritional-medical assessment of nutrients and other substances with physiological action in conventional foods.

President

Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Mathematical Modelling

Unit 33

The unit is responsible for the planning, advice on and implementation of statistical and epidemiological methods and projects at the BfR, staff training in statistics and the development of quantitative risk models.

Exposure Assessment and Exposure Standardisation

Unit 34

Exposure describes the contact between people and substances and micro-organisms.

Food Hygiene and Safety Concepts

Unit 42

This Unit is responsible for the methodological recording of health risks as well as hygiene and quality shortcomings in foods in the “farm to fork” concept. The focus of its work is on the development of safety concepts along the entire food chain.

Experimental Research

Unit 73

Unit 73 carries out experimental analyses which encompass the entire range of instrumental chemical analysis up to biochemical, molecular biological and toxicological characterisation of consumer-relevant substances.

Information Technology

Unit 35

The Unit is the service provider for Executive Management and the Institute departments in all areas of information technology. It seeks to provide efficient and economical IT support for the Institute’s tasks.

Technology

Unit 75

Nanotoxicology

Unit 94

Hygiene and Microbiology

Unit 74

Representative of the Severely Disabled

Prevention and Investigation of Foodborne Outbreaks

Unit 44

The main task of the Unit is participation in investigating the causes of foodborne disease outbreaks and recording data gathered during this work.

Application Safety

Unit 64

The main task of this Unit is the health assessment of pesticides regarding user protection and protection of uninvolved third partie.

Steering of Procedures and Overall Assessment

Unit 61

The work of this Unit encompasses the overall evaluation of all individual assessments prepared by the scientific units and the co-ordination of the tasks of Department 6 on the health assessment of substances and preparations as well as co-ordinating co-operation with other departments, federal institutes, industry, national and international organisations and the competent ministries.

Toxicology of Chemicals

Unit 63

This Unit assesses the toxic effects of chemical substances in accordance with the EU Existing Substances Regulation 793/93 EEC and the Chemicals Act. This work involves the examination of data which prove or rule out the harmful effect of substances on the basis of experimental tests. Based on these assessments proposals are elaborated for the classification and labelling of the dangerous properties of the substances.

Research Coordination

Staff office FK

Research Coordination prepares basic documents on research within BfR, draws up the BfR research programme and lays down the procedural rules for research within BfR.

Feed and Feed Additives

Unit 84

Contaminants

Unit 82

Toxicology of Pesticides and Biocides

Unit 62

This Unit deals with the toxicological assessment of pesticides, i.e. active chemical substances or micro-organisms contained in pesticides or biocides. This is done both within the framework of the national authorisation procedures pursuant to the Pesticides and Biocides Act but also on the European level in conjunction with the implementation of Directives 91/414/EEC and 98/8/EC.

Analytics, Exposure Assessment

Unit 72

Within the framework of scientific opinions on the risk assessment of substances to which consumers are exposed via food-contact articles, cosmetics, tobacco products and other consumer articles like toys and garments, the Unit focuses on the derivation of exposure data and assesses the analytical methods and results for the detection of substances in the above mentioned products and their carry-over to foods or humans.

Diagnostics, Genetics and Pathogen Characterisation

Unit 45

One main task of this Unit is the assessment of risks from so-called zoonotic agents which are of importance for human health. Special attention is paid to bacterial and parasitic pathogens which can be transmitted via foods of animal origin to humans.

Residue Assessment of Pesticides and Biocides

Unit 65

Pesticide residues in food and feed frequently attract the attention of the public at large. One of the fundamental tasks of BfR is to guarantee consumer safety by means of the scientifically sound risk assessment of pesticide residues in food and this work is done by Unit 66.

Risk Research, Perception, Early Detection and Impact Assessment

Unit 22

The main task of the Risk Research Unit is to support and optimise the communication of the risks assessed by BfR to stakeholders from the fields of politics, science, trade and industry, associations and NGOs as well as to the public at large by means of scientific research.

ZEBET - Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments

Unit 92

Unit 92 encompasses the evaluatory and experimental area of ZEBET set up in 1989. ZEBET is the “Centre for the Documentation and Evaluation of Alternatives to Animal Experiments” at BfR.

Epidemiology and Zoonoses

Unit 43

Unit 43 makes an important contribution to consumer health protection by supplying robust epidemiological data and findings.

International Chemicals Programmes

Unit 31

The Unit "Application Safety of Chemicals" assesses the health risks when handling chemical products for the public at large and during the transport of chemicals.

Executive Office

Staff Office L

The Executive Office reports directly to the BfR Governing Board and supports the President and Vice President in their daily routine work.

Policy Matters and Strategic Planning

Staff Office GP

The Staff Unit Policy Matters and Strategic Planning reports directly to the BfR Governing Board. It supports the President and Vice President in their daily routine work.

GLP Federal Bureau and Quality Management

Unit 36

All internal and external tasks of BfR concerning quality management/quality assurance are bundled within this Unit.

QM-Coordination

Staff Office QM-K

The BfR Executive Management shapes the BfR quality policy, sets quality targets and draws up rules for their implementation. The Quality Management Co-ordinator (QMC) attends to the implementation of the quality policy of the Institute’s Executive Management and ensures compliance with the corresponding quality management rules.

Antibiotic Resistance and Resistance Determinants

Unit 46

Poison and Product Documentation Centre

Unit 32

The Unit receives notifications of formulations of chemical products and notifications of poisonings from physicians. The statutory foundations for this are the Chemicals Act (§ 16e ChemG) and the Detergents and Cleaning Agents Act (§10 WRMG).

Molecular Toxicology

Unit 93

Residues

Unit 81

Press and Public Relations

Unit 23

BfR has the statutory task of informing the general public about health risks, its findings on other topics and work results (§ 2 para 1, no 12 BfRG). This includes the translation of scientific findings into easily comprehensible information and recommendations on consumer health protection for highly diverse groups. It also presents the Institute and its work to the public at large, expert circles and the media.

Product Identity and Traceability

Unit 83

Controlling/Audit

Staff Office CL

Microbial Toxins

Unit 41

This Unit co-ordinates the assessment of microbiological risks within Department 4. It prepares assessments about various pathogen-food combinations, e.g. on the TSE problem but also on other issues. It co-ordinates co-operation between the various units inside and outside the Department.

Food Toxicology

Unit 52

The Food Toxicology Unit assesses the potential health risks of foods, their components and their ingredients.

IT - Coordination

Staff Office IT-K

Scientific Event Management

Unit 24

At BfR non-public events, events for experts and public events are staged on consumer health protection topics. The main tasks of the Scientific Event Management Unit are the scientific and strategic design, technical organisation, preparation and follow-up assessment of these events in close co-operation with other BfR units and departments.

Scientific Advisory Board

Effect-based Analytics and Toxicokinetics

Unit 51

This Unit examines the biological effects of food ingredients and contaminants. This involves the analysis of the intake, distribution, metabolisation and excretion (toxicokinetics) of these substances with the help of cell culture and molecular biological methods and also classical technical-analytical methods.