The Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine Institute (ISUV), Albania’s reference centre tasked with researching and checking food safety and quality as well as animal health protection by diagnosing and preventing animal diseases, has been totally transformed thanks to a state budget investment project on reconstruction and rehabilitation of the institute building following damages due to the devastating earthquake.

All types of tests are conducted in accordance with the EU technical requirements and bio-safety standards at the new venues, already equipped with state-of-the-art technology.

Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Frida Krifca, today visited the new institute building, now featuring obviously larger spaces for the existing labs, whereas new labs have been opened in a bid to meet the increasing demand for the control of animal and plant products waste. 

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Frida Krifca said that the institute is the most important institution responsible for the food security in our country and that thanks to the new investment project the institute now has been provided with the required technical and infrastructural capacities to meet the EU bio-security standards.

 “ISUV is the most important food safety institute in our country. We can now face and negotiate with any EU negotiating team, as we have already built the needed technical and we can justify it through the know-how, hard work and now through investment projects on both technical and infrastructural aspects in order to meet the bio-security and safety standards required by the European Union,” Agriculture Minister said.

With the new workspaces, laboratories and state-of-the-art technology devices in place, in addition to enhancing quality, work is underway to further expand the range of accreditations. With accreditation of five types of tests already in the process, the Institute will certify 107 different accredited tests, including testing of the effects and residue of 430 types of pesticides on plants. The project is part of the Albanian government commitments in the context of the Open Balkan initiative to ensure safety of plant products from the pesticide waste. The goal is that 11 more types of tests are accredited by the end of 2022, taking the total of accredited tests to 118. The new tests ensure food safety for the domestic consumers, as well as for the safety of Albanian agricultural exports to the EU member states.

At a conversation with the Institute employees and specialists, the government head Edi Rama said that ISUV should be granted a special status of the Research Centre. 

“We should grant the Institute a special status, because it is one of the few institutes to survive destruction back then. It was awful. That’s why we will explore ways to grant a special status to this Institute and be considered not part of the public administration, but an independent Research centre. The best way to express gratitude to you all is to prepare the proposal for the status, which can be approved and be included in the next year’s state budget law,” PM Rama said.