Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME
Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME
© Fraunhofer IME

© Fraunhofer IME

Evaluation of Food Safety and Consumer Risk Assessment

In this business area, investigations focus on the uptake and metabolism of chemicals in crops and farm animals.

A wide range of crops representing different climatic regions is available for single  or rotational crop studies. Further to the classic livestock studies with poultry or ruminants according to OECD 503 we also offer metabolism and feeding studies in fish.

For the detection and identification of unknown metabolites via radiolabeling (14C), high-resolution LC-MS/MS and LC-SPE/NMR according to GLP and 14C food processing (“radio kitchen”) are available.

Instrumental biochemical and chemical special analytics to investigate food and feed as well as the services of the Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance complement the service profile.

Research, development and services

Uptake and metabolism of agrochemicals

Rotational crop studies

Uptake and metabolism in crops
- Central European crops (e.g. maize and other cereals, leafy vegetables, potatoes and other vegetables, tomatoes and rapeseed)
- subtropical/tropical crops (e.g. sugar cane, peanut, soybean and cotton)
- permanent crops (e. g. grapevine and apples)

Metabolism in animals cultured for food production
- metabolism and feeding studies in fish
- metabolism in fish hepatocytes and liver S9 fractions
- metabolism studies in hens and goats

Identification of unknown metabolites using 14C-labeling, high-resolution LC-MS and LC-SPE/NMR under GLP conditions (NMR)

Food safety and food quality

Substance-related analysis of food and feed according to international guidelines

Food microbiology

Identification of pathogens

Special instrumental analysis for the detection of charac­teristic ingredients, aroma compounds, contaminants and residues in food and feed (including drinking water) as well as complex consumer products (e.g. by LC/MS or SBSE-GC/MS/O)

Development of cost-effective high-throughput screening methods and rapid, convenient test methods

Detection procedures based on biochemistry and molecular biology