The Directorate General for Food (DGAL) of the French Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-food and Forestry manages a surveillance system for contaminants in food and feed. The system is complex and involves many stakeholders interacting with one another. Its main objectives are to verify if products are safe and to monitor trends in contamination over time.

In 2014, 25 surveillance programmes were implemented, across the different food sectors all along the food chain. No less than 58,179 samples were collected and approximately 800,000 analytical results were produced. As in previous years, contamination levels in food and feed were low. Data were processed on the one hand by the authorities to implement immediate risk-mitigation measures and to

communicate about official actions, and on the other hand by the scientific community to conduct research work.

In 2014 again, when we look at the results, the surveillance system in place has shown evidence of effectiveness, despite many regulatory and methodological constraints, thanks to the strong commitment of the different stakeholders and the significant allocation of human and financial resources. However, a number of points could be improved to optimise the system and thus improve data quality and communication on the results.