PHARE/Transition facility Twinning Light project Fiche

Project Title: Strengthening of risk assessment, risk management, risk communication, quality assurance and residue analysis in official food control in the Republic of Lithuania

Project Number:

Twinning Light No.:

Funding Programme: 2006Transition Facility Programme, Unallocated Envelope

Beneficiary Institution State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS), Lithuania

Maximum Budget 0,19 MEUR

1. Background and justification

The new EU regulations underline the importance of prevention of risk through consumption of unsafe foodstuffs. The official control should orientate its activities to the reduction, elimination or avoidance of risks to consumers health and therefore three interconnected components of risk analysis (risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication) are used.

In order to introduce new EU requirements and to strengthen risk analysis and assurance of the quality of the work of SFVS,at the end of 2003 Risk and Quality management department was established in SFVS. The main tasks of this department are to implement and maintain quality system and manage the risk in the official food and veterinary control. In 2006 the department prepared Quality manual, procedures for control of several foodstuffs. The Quality system is accredited in 6 local SFVS according to ISO 17020.

Risk assessment, risk management and risk communication, quality management are new topics in the official food and veterinary control. The staff responsible for implementation of these requirements faces with difficulties. In attempt to tackle the problem the SFVS has introduced trainings of staff on the mentioned topics. Further work has revealedaserious need for the support of external experts in these fields. This was noted by the team of FVO inspectors in the Mission report DG (SANCO)/8154/2006 (mission from 27 February to 3 March 2006) stated in executive summary and observations:

“Many procedures, instructions and training programmes have been, or are being developed in the framework of quality management system. However, the system is in an early stage of development and implementation.”

“The risk assessment carried out by the State Food and Veterinary Service is very basic. For instance, hygiene, construction and layout deficiencies are not weighted and no action is taken of Food Business Operators past records and reliability of own checks.”

National Veterinary Laboratory (NVL) as central laboratory of SFVS is responsible for official testing of food and acts as National Reference Laboratory of Lithuania in food safety analysis. NVL together with State Inspection on Veterinary Preparations of Lithuania prepares the national residues control plans on residues in foodstuffs and is responsible for the implementation of these plans. NVL also conducts food testing according to the requirements of EU and national legal acts.

NVL faces with the difficulties regarding the implementation and validation of the methods for the detection of different residues and contaminants. This situation illustrates the extracts from different reports of FVO missions presented bellow.

FVO mission report DG(SANCO)/7667/2005 (mission from 05/09/2005 to 09/09/2005) stated in the executive summary:

“The National Veterinary Laboratory, responsible for pesticide residues analysis, is accredited to ISO 17025. However, some deficiencies were identified regarding the equipment and measures specified in the Guidance Document No. SANCO/10232/2006 on Quality Control Procedures for Pesticide Residues Analysis.”

Mission report DG(SANCO)/8007/2006 (mission from 23 to 27 January 2006) stated in the executive summary:

“The report concludes that, a framework for residue controls in line with EU requirements is in place. Shortcomings in the scope of analysis, largely dictated by a lack of appropriate analytical capability, undermine the effectiveness of the residue control programme.”

and specified under point 6 (conclusions):

“However, it is clear that method development and validation needs to continue if the laboratory is to comply with Community legislation on validation of analytical methods (Commission Decision 2002/657/EC) and increase the scope of testing for the NRCP. Whilst the ongoing twinning project has improved analytical capability, continued efforts are required to capitalise on the opportunities created by this initiative.” (refering to LT2004/AG/04)

The report DG (SANCO)/8014/2006 describes the outcome of a mission carried out by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in Lithuania, from 29 May to 2 June 2006. It states in the executive summary and recommendations:

“The Lithuanian authorities have no measures in place to prevent that fish with dioxin levels exceeding the Community maximum limit are placed on the EU market. Consequently, the Lithuanian authorities cannot guarantee that all Baltic Sea fish placed on the market for human consumption fulfils the requirements of Commission Regulation (EC) No 466/2001.”

“To further improve the implementation of the requirements with regard to traceability and consumer information on Baltic Sea fish in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 2065/2001 and Regulation (EC) No178/2002, and under 5.3. Laboratories (concerning Twinning project LT2004/AG/04):

“The mission team observed that:

- the tender for the analytical instrument for dioxin analysis has been agreed and the equipment will be purchased soon;

- the training project with experts from Germany was intended to cover also the method for dioxin analysis, but delays in the tendering procedure means that this will not be possible to conduct on site training before the end of the Twinning training project in August 2006.”

SFVS and NVL make efforts to change the situation. The detailed action plan for the implementation of the new methods for the analysis of residues has been prepared. With the support of ongoing TWINING projects the staff of NVL has undergone training. These activities yield good results, but due to limited time and resources only a part of the needswas covered. Besides those activities were positively evaluated by FVO mission, which took place 25-28 September 2006. In the final meeting FVO inspection team stated that validation of methods for the substances of Group A is almost completed, validation of methods for Group B is under way; some deadlines postponed until 2007. Procedure of implementation B methods conformsto legal requirement.

For the strengthening of the testing of chemical and biological contaminants, residues in food and testing of food composition NVL needs support for implementation of special food testing methods, further training, especially for the effective achievement of one of the most important goals - testing for veterinary drugs and pesticide residues, PCBs, dioxins and other contaminants using the sophisticated equipment for, testing of food and drinking water. Furthermore, testing of food composition for official verification purpose becomes very important. Food industry use different ways to reduce costs on the production of food products, which may have a negative effect on the quality. To have strict official control on the composition of food the laboratory testing procedures must be strengthened and new onesmust be implemented. Therefore the training in this field is very essential.

Based on evaluations by FVO inspectors, and recommendations from the TWINING projects, there are a few areas, where further development and help of external experts is needed:

  1. Assistance in the development of detailed procedures for risk assessment, risk management and risk communication and training and retraining of staff involved;
  2. Evaluation of the current quality management system and training and retraining of staff on quality management in SFVS taking into account the new “COMMISSION DECISION of 29 September 2006 setting out the guidelines laying down criteria for the conduct of audits under Regulation (EC) No882/2004”;
  3. NVL: Introduction of more methods for residues and contaminants, training of personnel in the application of new equipment.

Strengthening of Food safety and official residue control in Lithuaniais one of the main goal mentioned in the Article 34 of the Act of Accession.

Related activities

This project does not overlap with the previous projects already implemented or being implemented in the area of public and animal health. The relevant information on these projects is presented below:

With support of PHARE project No. 97 - 0138 "Development of the National Food Control Program and Food Control Laboratories" recommendations to Lithuanian authorities on transposition of EU legislation into national legislation were provided, the Food Control Laboratory as part of the NVL has been established and equipped. The staff has been trained in Lithuania and in Germany and the laboratory has been accredited.

With the support of PHARE project LT03/IB/AG/02 (No. 2003.004-341.02.03) “Strengthening of food safety control, food control laboratories in Lithuania”, the staff of SFVS and NVLhas been trained to conduct official control and testing of food. The laboratory has been equipped to cover part of residue testing in food (LC-MS/MS). The regional laboratories are also equipped with new modern instrumentation for food analysis.

With support of Transition Facility project LT2004/AG/04 (no. 2004.016-925-01-04) "Strengthening of official control of food safety and residues in food in the Republic of Lithuania" new methods for residue analysis have been implemented at NVL. Equipment from the supply tender was not delivered within the implementation period of the Twinning component, therefore the training of NVL specialists on site was not possible to complete.

2. Description of the Assignment

2.1. The beneficiaries

The project will contribute to the enhancement of food safety control system in Lithuania. It will be co-ordinated by the State Food and Veterinary Service of the Republic of Lithuania.The direct beneficiaries involved in this project are the following:

  • State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS) as the Central Competent Authority (CCA) and CA in the field of food safety control responsible for its legislative basis and control in Lithuania;
  • The National Veterinary Laboratory as National Reference Laboratory responsible for diagnosis of animal diseases, testing of food and feed safety and quality.National Veterinary Laboratory and regional food control laboratories as the institutions carrying out food safety and composition control tests.

The State Food and Veterinary Service of the Republic of Lithuania (SFVS) is the competent authority in the Republic of Lithuania, responsible for the implementation of the state policy in the field of food and veterinary control at all the stages of food handling “from stable to table and from field to fork”. The official control is aimed at the reduction, elimination or avoidance of risks to health and therefore three interconnected components of risk analysis (risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication) are used.

The objectives of the State Food and Veterinary Service are as follows:

  • to safeguard the interests of the consumers, to ensure that the food supplied on the internal market and intended for export complies with the requirements for safety, labelling and other mandatory indicators established by the legal acts;
  • to ensure veterinary and hygiene control at all the stages of food handling (from rearing plants and animals intended for food to supplying of the food to consumers);
  • to prevent the introduction into the territory of the country of contagious animal diseases, to arrange protection of animals from contagious diseases and the eradication of disease focuses, to ensure the welfare of animals;

The responsibility for project preparation, implementation and control will be given to the beneficiary institution.

The Twinning Team will be based at the State Food and Veterinary Service. The counterparts of the PL will be:

Project Leader BC: Contact:

Mr. Rolanas Kliučinskas Ms. Ingrida Miliūtė

Head of Risk and Quality Management Department Head of Strategic Planning Department

State Food and Veterinary Service State Food and Veterinary Service

Siesikų st. 19 Siesikų st. 19

LT-2010 Vilnius LT- 2010 Vilnius

Lithuania Lithuania

Tel + 370 5 2491718 Tel + 370 5 2491719

Fax +370 5 2404362 Fax +370 5 2404362

E-mail E-mail

2.2. Global and Specific Objectives

The global objective of this project is to implement food safety standards in line with the relevant EU legislation.

The specific objectives of this project are:

  • To accredit food control in the field of animal origin and non-animal origin food processing enterprises, in the cities and countiesSFVS according to the ISO 17020;
  • To perform official food control based on risk assessment, risk management and risk communication;
  • To strengthen existing and to introduce new modern testing procedures for residues, contaminants, testing of food composition.

With a view to strengthening the food control system in the Republic of Lithuania the project purposes are as follows:

  • To strengthen the quality management system of SFVS through revision and introduction of reliable and reproducible standard operating procedures and independent accreditation;
  • To increase consumer protection by strengthening food control through risk assessment, risk management and risk communication procedures;
  • To strengthen the technical capacities of National Veterinary Laboratory (NVL) via implementing special technical knowledge in high sophisticated analytical procedures for determination of chemical and biological contaminants, residues and new emerging residues and in testing food composition.

2.3. Requested services

  1. Assistance in the development of detailed procedures and methodology for risk analyses;
  2. Assistance in the preparation of risk assessment, risk management and risk communication programme;
  3. Assistance in the developmentstanding operating procedures on food control based on risk assessment and used for inspectors daily work;
  4. Training and retraining of staff involved in risk analysis;
  5. Evaluation of the current quality management system. Proposal of recommendations to the current quality management system;
  6. To perform internal audit and management review of existing quality system in State Food and Veterinary Service;
  7. Training and retraining of staff on quality management in SFVS;
  8. Training of personnel of NVL in the introduction and validation of the new testing procedures on different kind of instrumentation: HRGC-HRMS, LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, HPLC, GC systems and other;
  9. Assistance in the development of the screening and confirmatory methods for residues of PCBs, dioxins, pesticides residues, veterinary drugs and other contaminants in food implemented and preparation for accreditation.

Activities / Input, man days
Project Leader / Expert in
quality management / Expert from risk assessment institution / Expert from laboratory / Total
1. / To administer and manage the project / 10 / 10
2. / Evaluation of existing risk analysis procedures / 2 / 2 / 4
3. / Training of staff on procedures for risk assessment methodology, statistical data collection for risk assessment, data management/evaluation / 5 / 5 / 10
44. / Training of staff on risk assessment procedures for biological hazards in food / 5 / 5
55. / Training of staff on risk assessment procedures for contaminants in food / 5 / 5
66. / Training of staff on risk management procedures / 3 / 3
77. / Training of staff on procedures for risk communication / 5 / 5 / 10
88. / Training of staff for identification of emerging risks (Art. 34 of Regulation 178/2002) / 5 / 5
9. / Evaluation of existing quality management systems in State Food and Veterinary Service and preparation of recommendations / 2 / 2 / 4
10. / Training of staff for developing quality management system according ISO 17020 standard / 5 / 5
111. / Management review of quality management system / 2 / 2
112. / Internal audit of ISO 17020 quality management system / 7 / 7
113. / Training of personnel of NVL on the usage of HRGC/HRMS for dioxin analysis / 3 / 15 / 18
114. / Training of personnel of NVL on the usage of ICP-MS for element analysis / 10 / 10
115. / Training of personnel of NVL for analysis of pesticide residues using LC-MS/MS, GC, GC-MS / 5 / 5
16. / Training of personnel of NVL for analysis of residues of feed additives and veterinary drugs using LC-MS/MS, HPLC, GC-MS / 25 / 25
117. / Training of personnel of NVL for analysis of food composition / 10 / 10
118. / Training of personnel of NVL for testing of food for microbiological contamination and genetically modified products. / 5 / 10 / 15
TOTAL / 30 / 18 / 30 / 75 / 153

2.4. Expected results:

  • Preparation and implementation of standing operating procedures on risk communication and consumer information. Preparation of risk analyses programme.
  • Preparation and implementation of standing operating procedures on food control based on risk assessment. Application thereof for independent accreditation;
  • Qualification, personal skills of the quality managers improved at the central and local levels and training programmes according to the ISO17020 prepared;
  • National Veterinary Laboratory capacities strengthened for the testing of veterinary chemical and biological contaminants and residues as well as environmental contaminants. The new testing and confirmatory methods for residues of PCBs, dioxins, pesticides residues, veterinary drugs and other contaminants in food implemented and prepared for accreditation;
  • National Veterinary Laboratory capabilities for testing of food compositionstrengthened.

3. Expert profile

Short-term experts (STEs)

  • Training and assistance to State Food and Veterinary Service staff in developing and implementing risk management, risk assessment and risk communication procedures;
  • Training and assistance to State Food and Veterinary Service staff in developing and implementing food and residues control standing operating procedures;
  • Training and assistance to laboratory staff in implementation of the Commission Decision 2002/657/EC;
  • Training and assistance to laboratory staff in area of analytical food chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology (application of HRGC-HRMS, LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, HPLC, GC and other).

Short-term experts (total 123 m/d):

All the experts should have:

  • University education;
  • Knowledge and experience in the working field of at least 3 years;
  • Experience in preparing and delivering training programmes for staff;
  • Fluency in English (written and spoken);
  • Computer literacy.

Special requirement:

  • For quality management - Expert should haveworking experience in the field of quality system;
  • For risk assessment, management - Expert should have working experience in the field of risk analysis, including risk assessment, risk management, risk communication;
  • For the strengthening laboratory – Experts should be working with the following testing: HRGC-HRMS, LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, HPLC, GC systems and for analysis of food composition, for testing of food for microbiological contamination, genetic modifications;

Project Leader (PL-MS)

The Project Leader from the EU side will be responsible for achievement of project expected results and for organization of the necessary meetings (steering committee and also kick/off meetings) within Twinning light project.