Last update
Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration (ALVA)
The Administration
The Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration was created in 2022 by bringing together most of the food chain control bodies in a single administration.
Following the logic of Regulation 2017/625 which defines common and uniform criteria for all controls in the agri-food chain, the ALVA is made up of the following pre-existing units:
- Administration of Veterinary Services
- Food Safety Division of the National Health Directorate
- Feed Control Department of the Administration of Agricultural Technical Services
- Government Commissariat for Quality, Fraud and Food Safety
ALVA's tasks are defined in the law of 8 September 2022 on the creation and organisation of the Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration.
Missions
The Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration takes over all the tasks of the pre-existing bodies and is thus responsible for the following tasks:
- official controls and other official activities in the field of animal health, as well as information, prevention and control of animal diseases;
- implementation of animal identification and registration;
- official controls and other official activities in the field of animal welfare, as well as information, prevention and improvement of animal welfare;
- official controls and other official activities in the fields of health safety, fair trading and safety of animal by-products, feed, food and food contact materials and articles;
- official controls in the field of food quality;
- official controls and other official activities concerning imports from and exports to third countries;
- analysis, testing and diagnosis of samples taken during official controls and other official activities in the fields of animal health, animal welfare, animal by-products, feed, food and materials and articles intended to come into contact with food;
- management of databases relating to authorisations, registrations and approvals of operators in the food chain;
- fight against fraud in the framework of ALVA's missions;
- implementation of procedures for the placing on the market of food, materials and articles intended to come into contact with food and animal feed;
- management of crisis situations in cooperation with other relevant institutions;
- risk communication and official controls;
- development of integrated multi-annual management and control plans;
- Organisation of the administrative cooperation with the European Commission, EU agencies and international organisations as a contact point and national correspondent.
Organisation chart
The Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration is under the sole supervision of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Viticulture. It is headed by a Directorate composed of a Director and two Deputy Directors.