BfR Annual Report 2015

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BfR | Annual Report 2015 16
BfR-Committees
Fifteen scientific expert committees advise the BfR in
questions relating to the safety of food and feed, chemi-
cals and products, as well as risk communication. They
consolidate the expertise available in Germany at the
highest scientific level to form an external scientific qual-
ity assurance system for the assessment tasks under-
taken by the BfR. In this way, they can be called upon
for advice as an established network not only in times
of crisis.
The approximately 200 committee members are exter-
nal, independent experts who support the work of the
BfR in an advisory capacity and on an honorary basis.
They come from universities and other research institu-
tions, national and regional authorities, as well as trade
and consumer associations.
The BfR-Committees each have at least ten members
who elect a chairperson from among their ranks. The BfR
provides support by taking over management tasks. The
minutes of the meetings, which produce the scientific
opinions and results of the committees' consultations are
made available to the general public on the BfR website.
What makes them fundamentally different from other in-
stitutions in the EU, such as the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA), is that in line with their rules of proce-
dure, BfR committees play a purely advisory role and do
not make any risk assessments.
In 2013, suitable experts who had previously applied in
an open process, were selected by the external appoint-
ing panel for the new appointment period 2014 to 2017
and appointed by the BfR president with a certificate.
The appointing panel is made up of members of the BfR
Scientific Advisory Board, the chairs of the German Re-
search Foundation's Senate Committees for the Health
Assessment of Food and of Substances and Resources
in Agriculture and a representative of the Senate of Fed-
eral Research Agencies.
i The tasks of the BfR committees, list of members
and rules for maintaining independence:
Other committee at the BfR:
Quality management
How well does the BfR work? The institute's employees
have to face this general question every day. Modern
quality management structures help here to fulfil the
BfR's legal remit to prepare high-quality, science-based
risk assessments.
Since 2010 all work areas at the BfR have been certified,
in line with the quality standard DIN EN ISO 9001:2008.
This international standard promotes the establishment
of work processes and responsibilities so that high qual-
ity can be achieved with regard to the work performed
and products produced. This applies to the scientific
work of the BfR as well as the administration and com-
munication. The quality standards are monitored for
compliance and constant improvement is sought in inter-
nal and external audits.
The standard DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025 for test and cali-
bration laboratories specifies additional technical and
personnel requirements. These regulations enable very
high, comparable quality demands on an international
level.
The BfR's scientific laboratories have been accredited
since 2003 in accordance with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025.
The accreditation places emphasis on technical and
professional competence of test laboratories and serves
as confirmation of high-quality, reliable results.
These two quality certifications require regular, inde-
pendent verification. The certification must be recon-
firmed every three years and accreditation every five. In
addition to this, so-called monitoring audits are annually
conducted. The performance of the tasks in line with
DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 was last confirmed in May 2015
by the independent TÜV Nord Cert GmbH. The compli-
ance of the scientific labs holding the standard DIN EN
ISO/IEC 17025:2005 was last reviewed by German ac-
credited body (DAkkS) in November 2015.
i Information on quality management at the BfR: