The Laboratory of Food Analysis (Dir. Prof. C. Van Peteghem) of the University of Ghent is specialized in the development of analytical methodology for the detection and quantification of foreign substances in various food types. These include growth promoters, sulfonamides, tetracyclines and mycotoxins like aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and T-2 toxin. It has gained an international reputation by the organization of the biennal (from now on four-yearly) International Symposium on Hormone and Veterinary Drug Residue Analysis (Ghent, 1988, 1990, 1992 and Bruges 1994). The Third International Symposium on Hormone and Veterinary Drug Residue Analysis will be held in the city of Bruges from June 2nd to 5th, 1998 (general information is provided on the following site: http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~cvpetegh).
The Laboratory of Food Analysis of the University of Ghent is approved by the Institute for Veterinary Inspection and by the Ministry of Agriculture. Routine analysis for forbidden growth promoters are carried out for the Institute for Veterinary Inspection, the Food Inspection Services, the Ministry of Agriculture, law courts and the food distribution. The Laboratory is chairing the working-party on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in hormone analysis which gathers the approved control laboratories of Belgium and which organizes interlaboratory tests on a regular basis. The laboratory was a participant in the FLAIR concerted action no 8. It served as a subcontractor in a European Union project which delivered certified reference materials (liver, urine, muscle, tissue) for zeranol, a non-steroidal estrogen, often used in sheep and goat husbandry.
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