Our National Reference Laboratory for Metals and Nitrogen Compounds in Feed and Food is located in our Food Security Business Unit.

Metals occur in varying levels in all feed and food. Their amount depends on the natural composition as well as on the production and environmental conditions of the respective feed or food production. Some metals, such as trace elements, have essential properties, while others, such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, have no nutritional relevance and are classified as toxic or very toxic.

Due to the toxicity of some heavy metals, maximum levels for these contaminants have been established in Directive 2002/32/EC (animal feed) and Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006 (food). This applies to the following elements and element species:

• Arsenic (total arsenic) and inorganic arsenic.
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Mercury
• Tin

In order to ensure a high quality of official analyses, Regulation (EC) No. 333/2007 lays down, among other things, minimum requirements for analytical methods for the determination of heavy metals.

Furthermore, other elements (non-metals) such as fluorine or iodine and nitrogen compounds such as nitrite, nitrate and urea also fall within the scope of this NRL. Here, too, in the above-mentioned regulations, maximum levels have been set for the following substances:

• Fluorine
• Nitrite
• Nitrate
• Melamine

The National Reference Laboratory for Metals and Nitrogen Compounds in Feed and Food is in charge of the Austrian agendas as well as the agendas for Northern Ireland.

according to VO (EU) 2017/625:

• Cooperation with the EU reference laboratory in Lyngby (Denmark)
• Mandatory participation in EU-RL proficiency testing schemes.
• Support of the national competent authorities
• Coordination of the activities of the competent official laboratories
• Performance & organization of interlaboratory comparisons and comparative tests
• Conducting & organizing workshops for the competent official laboratories