Lavetan, our site in Turnhout offers testing services to the food and livestock industry. Now Lavetan is putting nearly 800 square meters of new laboratory space to use for livestock analyses, with a focus on ELISA and PCR techniques.

Hygienicum, our site in Graz, has tested the Austrian national team for Covid-19 during games or training sessions in the south of Austria in the course of the Covid pandemic in recent months. As a thank you for their efforts, the Hygienicum team received a club pennant with the signatures of the athletes of the Austrian national team. Hygienicum now made this club pennant available for auction by the Lions Club in Graz.

Process contaminants such as 3-MCPD and 2-MCPD can be formed during the production and processing of food, e.g. (high-fat) bakery products, baby food and edible fats and oils made from natural ingredients. As of 01.01.2021, new maximum levels will apply to the sum of 3-MCPD and 3-MCPD fatty acid esters and glycidyl fatty acid esters in certain foods.

As with food, Christmas trees in the EU must be labelled to state whether or not pesticides have been used during cultivation.

The GBA Group offers services to ensure that your Christmas trees comply with EU pesticide legislation.

In addition to mineral oil hydrocarbon compounds, undesirable substances such as pyrrolizidine alkaloids, tropane alkaloids and aflatoxins can also be found in popular ingredients for gingerbread and Christmas spices such as candied lemon peel, candied orange peel, nutmeg, coriander and aniseed. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) and tropane alkaloids are natural substances that are mainly formed by certain plants, e.g. the St. James' Cross or deadly nightshade, and serve as protection against predators. Whereas the aflatoxins are mould toxins (mycotoxins), which are known to be extremely carcinogenic.