Laboratory Director: Tahar Ait Ali
Address: 10B rue Claude Bourgelat, PA de la Grande Marche, Javené CS 40608 35306 Fougères Cedex
Email: Contact.laboratoiredefougeres@anses.fr
Tel: +33 (0) 2 99 17 27 47
Team: 65 people, spread out across four research units
The Fougères Laboratory operates in the areas of food safety, veterinary medicine and food hygiene.
The laboratory’s mission is to further knowledge of the benefits and risks of veterinary medicinal product and disinfectant use by the food processing industry. It also analyses the effects of antibiotics and biocides on antimicrobial resistance and characterises the toxicological hazards associated with contaminants. Moreover, the laboratory develops new tools for predicting the toxicity of these products.
The laboratory’s work focuses on:
The laboratory is the National Reference Laboratory for veterinary medicine residues and antimicrobial resistance. It is also the European union Reference Laboratory for antimicrobial and dye residues.
To know more about the Laboratory
>> See the leaflet (PDF)
Mould in food: identifying mutagenic and carcinogenic toxins
The combined use of several different software applications could speed up the acquisition of knowledge on toxins known as mycotoxins, which are produced by certain types of mould growing in food. This innovative approach has been used by ANSES scientists to identify mycotoxins that may be mutagenic and/or carcinogenic.
The missions of the Antibiotics, Biocides, Residues and Resistance Unit are as follows:
The Actia Fastypers Joint Technology Unit (UMT) brings together teams from ANSES, INRAE and agro-industrial technical institutes (Actalia - dairy sector and the Institut du porc [IFIP]). Two ANSES teams are involved: the Salmonella & Listeria unit of the Food Safety Laboratory and the Antibiotics, biocides, residues & resistance unit of the Fougères laboratory.
The activities of the Actia Fastypers UMT are devoted to Listeria and Salmonella, two bacteria of animal origin responsible for diseases in humans and transmitted through food. One of the unit's objectives is to understand the mechanisms by which Listeria and Salmonella bacteria manage to adapt and persist in the external environment, including in food processing plants, and how certain strains are resistant to biocides. The second objective is to develop tools to characterise and detect these persistent bacterial strains, so that the cleaning and disinfection process can be adapted.
The Experimentation, Modelling and Data Analysis Unit has the following missions:
The missions of the Analysis of Residues and Contaminants Unit are to:
This unit’s missions are to: