New Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration Now Operational

On Monday 3 October 2022, Luxembourg's Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development, together with the Ministry of Consumer Protection and the Ministry of Health, confirmed that the new Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration (ALVA) is now operational.

The new entity was originally announced in November 2022 - click here for the original article.

The law establishing and organising the ALVA was published on Thursday 29 September 2022, in the Official Journal of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. In addition, the Government Cabinet that me on 30 September 2022, confirmed the appointment of Dr. Félix Wildschutz as director of ALVA, following the proposal of the Minister of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development, allowing the new single administration to be responsible for the most official controls relating to the safety of the food chain to be operational under the supervision of the Minister of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development.

In practice, around a hundred officials already involved in the control of animal health and welfare, foodstuffs, materials and objects in contact with foodstuffs and animal feed, but dependent until now on other bodies, will from now on be integrated into the Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration. These are agents of the Veterinary Services Administration with its State Veterinary Medicine Laboratory, the Animal Feed Control Service of the Agriculture Technical Services Administration, the Security Division of the Health Directorate and the Government Commissioner for Quality, Fraud and Food Safety. These services will change supervision without physically moving, thus guaranteeing the continuity of their operations.

For Ministers Paulette Lenert and Claude Haagen, who initiated the project, the kick-off of ALVA marks a decisive step in implementing a coherent national food policy and administrative simplification for the benefit of consumers and the agri-food sector.

ALVA pays particular attention to food safety, both for consumers and for professionals in the food sector. Thus, anyone interested in receiving food alerts and recalls of food products and animal feed or undeclared allergens can subscribe to the newsletter on the portal https://securite-alimentaire.public.lu/fr.html or follow the new page https://www.facebook.com/LuxFoodAlerts to be informed.

Information relating to animal health and welfare can be consulted on the portal https://agriculture.public.lu/de.html.

ALVA is located at 7 Rue Thomas Edison, L-1445 Strassen.