ANSES and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reinforce their partnership
During a visit on 17 March 2017 by a delegation from ANSES to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa, Dr. Primal Silva, the Acting Vice-President and Roger Genet, Director General of ANSES, signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning scientific cooperation. Its objective is to strengthen cooperation between the two agencies in the many areas where they have common interests.
Created in 1997, the CFIA is a federal agency whose President reports to the Minister of Health. Its mission, which is similar to that pursued by ANSES, is to ensure the health and well-being of Canadians, the environment and the economy, by preserving food safety, animal health and plant protection.
ANSES and the CFIA have already worked together in the fields of food safety, animal health and plant health. For example, ANSES’s Laboratory for Food Safety, via the national "Identypath" technology platform for the identification and typing of pathogens, undertakes research projects with the CFIA. Partnerships have also been set up with the Animal Health Laboratory at Maisons-Alfort, in its capacity as an OIE Collaborating Centre for research on parasitic zoonoses of food origin, with the Laboratory at Fougères, which is responsible for the detection of veterinary drug residues and colouring agents, and with the Plant Health Laboratory in Angers. These numerous joint projects led the two agencies to establish closer ties through the signing a Memorandum of Understanding on 17 March 2017, during a visit by a delegation from ANSES to the CFIA in Ottawa.
The purpose of this MoU is to strengthen the sharing of scientific information, to enhance cooperation concerning food risk assessment, research and analytical reference activities, and to encourage the exchange and hosting of scientists between the two Agencies.