National Food Safety Laboratory starts operating

After obtaining the accreditation, the National Food Safety Laboratory of Serbia in Batajnica started operating on Friday, December 20, as part of the Directorate for National Reference Laboratories, making the food safety system in Serbia complete.

As Serbian Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic pointed out, the state now has an umbrella institution for testing of all kinds of food products and controlling the operations of other laboratories in the territory of Serbia.

– After 20 years, Serbia has been accredited for a food safety lab and a phytosanitary lab with a bank of plant genes. A year ago, it got the accreditation for milk safety – Nedimovic said while visiting the Directorate.

As Nedimovic said, around EUR 20 million has been invested in building and equipping the Directorate so far. The Directorate for National Reference Laboratories covers the operations of several laboratories.

Of this amount, EUR 7.5 million was provided by the EU in the form of grants, whereas the rest was provided by the Government of Serbia from the budget.

According to him, the Directorate's labs will be able to control everything – fruit, vegetables, milk, meat and seeds.

Among other things, the labs will test food for pesticides, heavy metals, veterinarian medicines and mycotoxins.

Nedimovic also announced that this also enabled the control of all the private food control labs in the country.

He added that any kind of irregularity in imports and exports when it comes to food safety would no longer be possible.

Direkcija za nacionalne referentne laboratorije

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

National Food Safety Laboratory of Serbia in Batajnica

Directorate for National Reference Laboratories

Ministry of Agriculture

Branislav Nedimović