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About the BfR
International cooperation
Goods flows have fundamentally changed through glob-
alisation and are now subject to quick changes. New raw
materials and products are reaching the German mar-
ket. As the quality and safety standards in the countries
of origin are often not comparable with those that ap-
ply here, food and product safety can only be assured
nowadays through an international approach.
The BfR faces up to this challenge through close coop-
eration with ministries and partner authorities on all con-
tinents. The exchange of information and establishment
of uniform procedures and standards contribute directly
to a high level of safety, even with imported products. In
addition to this, the establishment of effective structures
for risk assessment and risk management in the partner
countries leads to a sustainable improvement of the situ-
ation, thus benefitting consumers all over the world.
The supervisory ministry, the Federal Ministry of Food
and Agriculture (BMEL), places great importance on the
further strengthening of cooperations of this kind. Inter-
national activities and regions in focus are closely coor-
dinated between BMEL and BfR. The BfR currently has
cooperation contracts with 42 partners in 26 countries.
One focus is on maintaining close contacts with Euro-
pean sister authorities. Whereas the BfR has enjoyed
many years of partnership with ANSES (France), DTU
(Denmark), AGES (Austria) and NVWA (Netherlands),
cooperation is still being built up with other agencies,
such as AECOSAN (Spain), ASAE (Portugal) and EVIRA
(Finland). Another focus is on collaboration with impor-
tant non-European trading and cooperation partners.
Worthy of special mention here are China and South Ko-
rea, partners with whom we conducted many joint activi-
ties once again in 2015. A new focal point is India, with
whose food safety authority FSSAI a cooperation con-
tract was signed in 2015.
Food and product safety can only be achieved through an international approach.