European Commission Sessions

SARAF courses financed by the European Commission Directorate General for external Trade (DG Trade) and the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO)

The last few years have seen an increase in the number of Sanitary and Phytosanitary-related trade issues between the EU and exporting Developing Countries. Many of these have been related to residue controls within the exporting country and an increased number of positive interceptions at the point of import into the EU.

In order to address these issues and help exporting countries to improve market access and to meet the standards set out by the European regulation, the European Commission DG-Trade and DG-Sanco has been financing training sessions in the field of residues and contaminants controls for laboratory experts originating from Developing Countries. Participants are selected by the European Commission in the countries concerned on the basis of their experience and responsibilities.

The courses are designed so as to improve the participants knowledge of EC regulation in terms of residue analysis in food, residue monitoring plans and the performance of analytical methods within the laboratory. The programme is very comprehensive and is run by some of the most experienced and recognised experts in the field. It also enables participants to build up a network of useful contacts in Europe.

DG-Trade: since 2008, eight training sessions have been organised by SARAF in Nantes, which represents 103 persons trained and 21 sessions have been organised overseas, which represents 581 persons trained.

DG-SANCO: in the frame of the Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) training initiative covering food and feed law, animal health and welfare and plant health rules, two training sessions have been organised by SARAF in Nantes in 2012 and 2013, which represents 39 persons trained.