Organization

Swedish National Food Agency, areas of responsibility and competenceNFA is the competent authority in Sweden for organizing official controls in the food chain including preparation and distribution of water intended for human consumption. NFA is also the authority responsible for informing public on nutrition, healthy dietary habits, and fair practices in the food trade. The agency has adopted risk analysis as working principles in the area of its responsibilities and risk and benefit assessments are conducted as basis for management and for communication of risks with the public.

The agency is the Swedish focal point for Codex Alimentarius and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). NFA is appointed by the Government to be the national reference laboratory (NRL) within 23 areas in chemical and microbiological analysis in food and a partner of the network of reference laboratories in the EU.

Sweden’s policy for global development

In December 2003 the Swedish Parliament adopted a new policy for global development. Its objective is equitable and sustainable global development and it encompasses all policy areas. The policy both aims to support the developing countries in their specific challenges, promote synergies between policy areas and handle factors both in Sweden and in the EU that restrain a positive development in developing countries.

The National Food Agency in global development cooperation NFA is committed to cooperate with national and international partners in the process to implement reforms in receiver countries in order to facilitate international market access and to develop food safety systems in line with EU and international standards.

The global development cooperation at NFA is coordinated by a group consisting of one member from each division:Research and Scientific Support: Monica Olsen Food Control: Torbjörn AxelssonStrategic Development and Support: Carmina Ionescu

Some examples of National Food Agency in global development cooperation Advanced International Training Programme in the Field

of Quality Infrastructure for Food Safety Training courses in Quality Assurance for Food Chemical

Laboratories. Training courses in Food Mycology. WHO/FAO pilot course: Basic awareness of microbial risk

assessment. Participations as scientific advisors and in project

leadership, concerning prevention of mycotoxin formation in food commodities.

Participation in training courses in compilation of food composition data and dietary surveys in collaboration with FAO and WHO Europe.

 Partnership Cooperation Program between Georgian National Food Agency and Swedish Board of Agriculture and NFA to build food inspection capacity in order to fulfil “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with EU”.

Testing for moulds and mycotoxins, including aflatoxins Extensive experience of quantification of toxin-producing mould

species in food and raw material with both traditional, culture-based methods, and modern methods like real-time PCR, as basis for risk identification and risk management

The laboratory produces reference material and proficiency tests which include moulds

Validation of methods for chemical residues analysis, including mycotoxins

NFA expertise in relation to mitigate aflatoxin contamination of food and feed

Aflatoxin prevention

Safenut (STDF-project) – collaboration with CIRAD (FR) Scientific coordinator in the STDF (N0. 114) project “Validation and

transfer to the key stakeholders of a sustainable and effective aflatoxin management system in the Brazil nut production chain for recovering and consolidating export markets, particularly in Europe”. 2006-06-01 to 2008-11-30

FAO (TCP-project) FAO consultancy in the TCP project: TCP/IRA/3104: Monitoring,

Prevention and Control of Aflatoxin Contamination in Iranian Pistachio Nuts. April –May 2009 and in Sep-Oct 2009.

NFA expertise

Raising awareness

The National Food Agency guides Swedish consumers towards healthy dietary habits.

Our recommendations and communication, based on the latest scientific evidence,

support consumers in their everyday life, for example when shopping, feeding their

children and cooking.

An important part of the NFA’s work includes the estimation of levels of hazardous

substances which consumers are exposed to as well as intake of nutrients through

the diet.

Human biomonitoring allows monitoring exposure in human population with a focus

on an early warning of increased exposure to toxic substances, as well as on cases of

a possible threat/crisis. It might be used to monitor the exposure recurrently as well

as in case of threat/crisis and also to detect exposures to “new” unexpected toxic

agents in human population.

NFA expertise

Raising awareness - Risk benefit management

NFA has developed a working procedure for risk-benefit assessments of food and are

continuously developing methodology within multidisciplinary teams and project

groups. As an example, we are assessing the risk (via aflatoxin exposure) and benefits

(of nutrients and cardioprotective effects) of nut consumption, in collaboration with

Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

We have experience of weighing nutritional, microbiological and toxicological issues

related to food to take action to improve public health. Sweden is one of few

countries with dietary guidelines where sustainable diet is integrated in

recommendations to promote healthy diets.

NFA expertise

Raising awareness - Risk benefit management

NFA is responsible for the national diet survey in Sweden and has long-lasting

experiences from diet surveys with different methods.

NFA have experience from all parts of a diet surveys from study design to the

examination of data with sophisticated statistical methods i.e. sampling of

participants, data collection (dietary data, physical activity information, socio-

demographic data and biological specimen), data cleaning and report writing.

NFA also have experience from Food composition data (FCD) work including analytical

projects (sampling, in-house laboratory, quality control of data and dissemination of

the information), recipe calculations, quality assurance of data, food classification

using Langual as well as Foodex 2 and a specific NFA classification.

NFA expertise

More information can be find here:

http://www.livsmedelsverket.se/en/