Navigation und Service

The BfR and the UCPIA in Uruguay to cooperate closely in future

28/2014, 16.10.2014

Cooperation agreement signed with the Department for Planning and Coordination of Food Safety (UCPIA) of Uruguay’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

The globalisation in the production and trade of food calls for the globalisation of concepts and strategies to ensure food safety. An important element of this is the cooperation, in terms of risk assessment and communication, between the authorities of the trading partners. "The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and our partner, the UCPIA in Uruguay, will therefore in future engage in intensive exchange of their expertise in the area of risk assessment. We will train scientists in the relevant disciplines through joint skill enhancement events, and we will collaborate on research projects on food safety", BfR-President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel said on the occasion of the signing of the cooperation agreement. "Uruguay strives to bring its food safety system in line with the new international concepts and strategies", added Uruguay’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Tabaré Aguerre. The Government of Uruguay would like to restructure and modernise areas such as food monitoring, risk assessment and risk communication. The cooperation between the BfR and the UCPIA was initiated and is supported by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

The cooperation between the BfR and the UCPIA revolves around the exchange of insights into the risk assessment of pesticides and pesticide residues in and on food and feed but will also include production animal health and the safety of products derived from such animals. The aim is to build up expertise in the area of risk assessment and risk communication in Uruguay. The main focus here will be on acquiring specific scientific insights into risk management. The goal is to further develop, on a scientific basis, food safety and consumer health protection as a whole. The cooperation initiative was signed by BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel und Dr. Norman Bennett, Head of the UCPIA, in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay on 13 October 2014. The agreement was signed in the presence of Agricultural Minister Tabaré Aguerre.

Uruguay is an important trading partner and supplier of agricultural products to the EU. In particular, foods such as grain and raw materials used in feed, for example soya beans, are exported to Europe. Germany is Uruguay’s most important European trading partner.

About the BfR

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientific institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. It advises the Federal Government and Federal Laender on questions of food, chemical and product safety. The BfR conducts its own research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.

Up