title: A review of the work of the EU Reference Laboratory supporting the authorisation process of feed additives in the EU. [corrected].
abstract: This paper describes the operation of the European Union Reference Laboratory for Feed Additives (EURL) and its role in the authorisation procedure of feed additives in the European Union. Feed additives are authorised according to Regulation (EC) No. 1831/2003, which introduced a completely revised authorisation procedure and also established the EURL. The regulations authorising feed additives contain conditions of use such as legal limits of the feed additives, which require the availability of a suitable method of analysis for official control purposes under real world conditions. It is the task of the EURL to evaluate the suitability of analytical methods as proposed by the industry for this purpose. Moreover, the paper shows that one of the major challenges is the huge variety of the methodology applied in feed additive analysis, thus requiring expertise in quite different analytical areas. In order to cope with this challenge, the EURL is supported by a network of national reference laboratories (NRLs) and only the merged knowledge of all NRLs allows for a scientifically sound assessment of the analytical methods.
authors.affiliation: a European Commission, Joint Research Centre , Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) , Geel , Belgium.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: von Holst
authors.affiliation: a European Commission, Joint Research Centre , Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) , Geel , Belgium.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Robouch
authors.affiliation: a European Commission, Joint Research Centre , Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) , Geel , Belgium.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bellorini
authors.affiliation: a European Commission, Joint Research Centre , Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) , Geel , Belgium.
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: González de la Huebra
authors.affiliation: a European Commission, Joint Research Centre , Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) , Geel , Belgium.
authors.forename: Zigmas
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ezerskis
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000592:standards*; D005062:European Union; D005503:Food Additives / Q000145:classification / Q000592:standards*; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D007753:Laboratories; D007880:Legislation, Drug; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D005503:Food Additives
keywords: European Union Reference Laboratory for Feed Additives (EURL); analytical methods for feed additives; authorisation of feed additives in the European Union