LABERCA (UMR1329 INRAE/Oniris)

Laboratory for the Study of Residues and Contaminants in Food

LABERCA is an Oniris-INRAE Joint Research Unit. LABERCA is also a National Reference Laboratory (LNR) under agreement with the Direction Générale de l'Alimentation (DGAL, MASA) for risk management issues associated with chemical residues and contaminants in foodstuffs.

The Unit's general area of activity is food safety, and is part of a global and integrated approach to risk assessment, from agricultural supplies to humans and their descendants. LABERCA is committed to generating knowledge about the sources, transfer and metabolism of the chemical compounds under study, in order to characterise both consumer exposure to chemical substances (measuring the occurrence of these parameters in foodstuffs) and impregnation (measuring the occurrence of the same parameters, their metabolites or their breakdown products in biological fluids and human tissues). More recently and through a number of collaborations, the Unit is generating data to help characterise hazards - particularly for endocrine-disrupting substances - by identifying biomarkers of exposure and/or effects indicating exposure to the parameter under study, and also by studying possible correlations between the prevalence of the parameter (exposure or impregnation) and clinical observations.

• Fate of chemical residues and contaminants from the environment to humans via the food chain
• Biological signature of effects caused by exposure to a chemical hazard
• Use of metabolites and biomarkers to characterise the exposure of individuals to chemical contaminants

Pr Bruno LE BIZEC