Head: Jiří Ruprich, MVD, PhD, Prof.
 
Contact: +420515577511, e-mail: jruprich@chprszucz

The characteristics of the activities of the Centre:

1. Preparation of the documentation for the MH to promote public health for

· national and regional health policy

· securing international tasks and activities

· legislative activity

· handouts for administrative procedures

2. Activities on behalf of the MH in the area of food safety and nutrition

· methodological work on the protection of public health in relation to nutrition and food

· assessment of health risks

· guarantee of the monitoring and research work for the assessment of the dietary exposure of the Czech population

· professional and technical support for the rapid alert system for food and feed – RASFF

· professional and technical support of the WHO alert system for food safety – INFOSAN

· leadership of national databases in connection with the assessment of health risks from dietary exposure (e.g., food consumption., the presence of chemicals in food, etc.)

· health authorization of novel food

· health authorization of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

· support for standardization and regulatory activities in the protection of public health

· the national reference work for listerias

· the national reference work for the GMOs

· the national reference work for the issue of microscopic fungi and mycotoxins

· health education of the population

3. Share tasks and structures of the EU in the field of food safety and nutrition

· participation in working groups of the EK for the area of food safety and nutrition

· support in the harmonization of legislation with the EU in the safety of food and nutrition

· research activities in cooperation with the countries of EU-grants and tenders

4. Activities in the remit of the centre

• the guarantee of the project "Assessment of dietary exposure", Monitoring the health status in relation to the environment - sampling, analysis, collection, processing and interpreting data
• daily expert and technical support of the RASFF, INFOSAN, PNT, GMO systems
• scientific and research activities in the areas of competence - nutritional epidemiology, assessment of health risks, the designing of new instruments for the practice
• methodological and reference activities
• pregraduate and postgraduate education
• publications in the field of professional competences

5. Conceptual support for the public health protection and promotion

• support the creation and implementation of strategies in the field of food safety and nutrition
• international cooperation with EU institutions (EFSA, ECDC, etc.), OECD, WHO and other international organizations
• support of programs at regional level – theoretical consultation, advices

The Centre is organized into two units

Unit for food safety analysis

Unit for health risk assessment and applied nutrition

Unit for food safety analysis

The Unit is focused mainly on the area of food safety and healthy nutrition. Covers primarily the evaluation of hazardous agents, assessing the dietary exposure of the population and population groups and the characterization of the health risk for significant chemical and biological agents. Performance is based on the necessary specialized laboratory activities, own and other providers. Laboratories operate in accredited regime (ČSN EN ISO/IEC 17025).

Head: RNDr. Irena Řehůřková, PhD.

Contact: tel. +420515577511, e-mail: rehurkova@chprszucz

Characteristics of the unit activity:

• the implementation of the monitoring of the dietary exposure of the population of the Czech population
• chemical analyses of food for the estimation of exposure doses
• specialized microbiological and mykological analysis
• evaluation of the health risks
• professional support for the rapid alert system for food and feed – RASFF
• professional support for WHO food safety alert system - INFOSAN

· the national reference work for listerias

· the national reference work for the GMOs

· the national reference work for the issue of microscopic fungi and mycotoxins

• standardization and regulatory activities in the protection of public health
• research and training activities in the area of food safety
• health education of the population
• participation in food safety working groups of the EC

The Unit has about 15 professional workers, of which 10 are health professionals.

The Unit includes the University and secondary school workers with diverse specialties, which should ensure the coverage of the most important professional specialization necessary to the performance of professional activities within the accredited laboratory. Labs provide the highly specialized reference work, the performance of the analyses in the context of long-term studies in the field of monitoring of population exposure to harmful agents, but also nutrients having significant relationship to health. In addition to the laboratory activities of the staff is involved in the evaluation of produced and collected data, in communication with the wider public and to support training, both in the form of lecture activities, and the form of training for the hygienists and also for academic institutions. The Unit is significantly involved in grant projects at the national and international level. In the case of the available capacity the Unit participates in the expertize activities for other organizations, including non-public organizations, however, exclusively in the area of their specialization. The Unit creates the technical background for the Unit for health risk assessment and applied nutrition.

Unit for health risk assessment and applied nutrition

The Unit is primarily focused on the characterization of health risks, their communication and supports their management. In practice, this means that the data produced and collected in the Unit for food safety analysis is processed to characterize health risks of dietary exposure to important agents in the diet, or specific groups of foods. The Unit does not deal with the risk assessment for specific individuals, but for groups of the population (the "public health nutrition"). The activity allows/supports science-based management of health risks by the Public Health Authorities.

Head: Prof. MVD. Jiří Ruprich, PhD.

Contact: +420515577511, e-mail: jruprich@chprszucz

The characteristics of the unit activities:

· methodological work on the protection of public health in relation to nutrition and food

· assessment of health risks

· guarantee of the monitoring and research work for the assessment of the dietary exposure of the Czech population

· professional support for the rapid alert system for food and feed – RASFF

· professional support of the WHO alert system for food safety – INFOSAN

· leadership of national databases in connection with the assessment of health risks

· health authorization of novel food and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

• scientific research activities in the area of nutritional epidemiology, assessment of health risks, the designing of new instruments for practice, etc.
• research activities in cooperation with the countries of the EU
• pregraduate, postgraduate education and publications in the area of specialization
• training programs at regional level – theoretical consultations

The Unit has about 10 professional workers, of which 5 are health professionals.

Work is highly specialized. The workplace due to its personnel capacity focuses only on strategically important tasks in terms of the risk characterization, to daily support to national/international information systems, food safety and applied nutrition, which is represented by tasks directly or indirectly arising from legislative documents. International cooperation is an important component. The Unit significantly contributes to the solution of international/national grant tasks that provide both sharing the expertise of other countries, and a significant share of the funding for the expert work.