Organisational structure
The BVL is an independent higher federal authority under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) with offices in Braunschweig and Berlin. The BVL's management has its headquarters in Braunschweig. The authority currently employs around 700 employees. The BVL is headed and externally represented by Friedel Cramer. He is supported by the Head Office. The BVL has five departments, a Head Office and department Z. The Quality Management group reports directly to the president.
- The Federal Office
- Structure
President
Friedel Cramer was born on 18 March 1960. From 1980 to 1986 he studied agriculture at the University of Stuttgart Hohenheim and completed his practical training in Rhineland-Palatinate. From February 1989 on he worked in various areas in the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).
Friedel Cramer, President of the BVL
Source: private
The skilled winegrower gained experience in the area of food law while working in the wine unit of the Ministry. In 2002 he took over the management of the plant construction unit. From 2012 to 2015, he served in the permanent mission of Germany to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. After returning to the BMEL, Cramer headed the Crop Protection Unit, where he was responsible for the phytosanitary matters of the BVL, the Julius Kühn Institute and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, among other things.
Friedel Cramer became the head of the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) on 1 December 2019.
Vice President
Dr. Gerd Fricke was born on 12 February 1960 in Herford. He pursued studies in pharmacy and food chemistry at the University of Münster while serving as a medical officer candidate for the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces).
Dr. Gerd Fricke, Vizepräsident des BVL
Source: Marcus Gloger / BVL
His professional journey began in 1990 when he assumed the role of a pharmacist in the laboratory of the Central Institute of Sanitary Service in Munich. In this capacity, he conducted examinations and assessments of food and drinking water. In 1995, he was appointed to lead a control laboratory for the Bundeswehr in Croatia. Dr. Fricke also contributed as a lead assessor on behalf of the state accreditation body AKS Hannover. In 1997, he assumed responsibility for coordinating the monitoring of food and drinking water within the Bundeswehr, alongside overseeing the production of pharmaceuticals, care products, and blood products for the German Armed Forces.
After completing his specialized training as a pharmacist in toxicology and ecology in 2001, he joined the management team of the Bundeswehr Medical Service in the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg). Here, he oversaw food and drinking water controls throughout the entire BMVg division. In 2002, he earned his doctorate as Dr. rer. nat. from the Technical University of Munich.
In 2004, Dr. Gerd Fricke took on the role of Head of Unit for residues and contaminants in food at the former Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food, and Agriculture. In this capacity, he held responsibility for, among other things, nationwide food monitoring. His career continued to ascend as in October 2006, he assumed leadership of the Department of Food Safety at the BVL in Berlin. Since then, he has played a pivotal role in the professional and organizational development of this area of responsibility, including its associated crisis management. Since January 2015, one of his key responsibilities has been to represent the president continuously.
In November 2017, Dr. Gerd Fricke was appointed as the first Vice President of the BVL.
Head Office
The Head Office includes the President’s Office, Press Office, Online Communication and Library, Strategic Management.
The President’s Office works directly with the president. The two units Press Office and Online Communication of the BVL is responsible for public relations and the BVL's contacts to the media and consumers. It looks after the BVL's Internet presence, and designs and publishes scientific and generally understandable publications. The Press Office includes the main editorial office for the Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety and for the various BVL report portfolios. The Press Office is also responsible for the BVL's trade fair appearances. As part of its press and public relations work, the BVL communicates administrative decisions, their scientific basis, and any current or planned management measures.
Strategic Management supports the president in managing the authority. With the introduction of modern cost/performance accounting and central project control, the efficient implementation of tasks in the BVL is to be improved further. Strategic Management initiates and supervises strategic projects and projects to consolidate the organisational and operational structure of the BVL.
Administrative Departments Quality Management, Internal Revision, Strategic IT and International Affairs
The management of the BVL has established a comprehensive Quality Management System (QMS) as well as an independent auditing and consulting body in order to meet a wide range of requirements and at the same time ensure the long-term high quality of its services. The QMS is based on DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 - a globally widespread and recognized standard.
The management of the BVL is committed to ensuring the legality of the administration and to constantly communicate, enforce and maintain the principles of the Quality Management System.
To support this, the BVL management has set up two Administrative Departments. They report directly to the President.
Administrative Department "Quality Management"
The BVL established a special staff office for introducing, implementing and maintaining the quality management system. According to the principles of DIN EN ISO 9001 the quality manager is a representative of the headship and therefore a designated member of Head Office. He reports directly to the president. The quality manager is responsible for superordinate coordinating tasks, implementing the quality management system and related communication.
Administrative Department "Internal Revision"
The Internal Audit department supports both the President of the BVL and the management personnel in carrying out their governance and control tasks. To this end, it carries out independent and risk-based audits within the BVL on behalf of the President. The facts collected are presented neutrally and transparently, analysed and objectively evaluated with regard to their legality and regularity, economic efficiency, safety and appropriateness. Based on its findings, the Internal Audit department makes recommendations in connection with the matters examined and advises all employees on ways to improve administrative procedures.
Legal basis is the General Administrative Regulation for Internal Audit in the Federal Government. (General Administrative Regulation for Internal Auditing – VwV IR). It regulates the basics for the implementation and functions of the Internal Audit departments.
Administrative Department "International Affairs"
The “International Affairs” department coordinates projects and contacts with sister authorities in other countries and organizes visits by foreign delegations to the BVL. The department is the National Contact Point for the European Union's training initiative "Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF)", the contact point for the German "Focal Point" of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the contact point for the committee of European Heads of Food Safety Agencies (HoA). The department also develops international training courses, such as the BVL’s “International Training for Safer Food (ITS Food)” for colleagues from countries outside the EU.
Overview of the European and global commitment of the BVL experts
Department Z: Central Services
Department Z is divided into the groups "Organisation, Human Resources and Financial Resources", "Real Estate Affairs, Legal Affairs, Procurement and Internal Affairs" and "Information technology, Telecommunications and Information Systems"
Department 1: Food, Feed and Commodities
In department 1 of the BVL, numerous tasks are carried out that contribute to food safety in Germany. It supports the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) with their tasks at government level. The government/Laender monitoring office is a common central unit which coordinates the official control of food traded on the Internet to ensure a consistent level of food safety throughout Germany on the growing Internet market.
The Group “Safety of the Food Chain” issues approvals and coordinates monitoring programmes together with the federal states. The group assists in EU and third-country audits and inspections in Germany and takes on a coordinating role for veterinary matters in exporting. The unit also keeps a database of enterprises handling food of animal origin. For all consumer products and products that come into contact with food, the group undertakes the coordination of certain monitoring tasks. Furthermore it checks applications for certificates of exemption for experimental purposes and applications for the approval of feed additives, bioproteins and diet feed. In addition it maintains the register of certified and/or registered feed companies and the register of border posts determined for the import of certain feed. In addition, the BVL lists pesticides that are allowed to be used for official measures in an enforcement procedure.
The Group “Crisis Management” covers tasks to prevent and manage crises in the field of food and feed. The BVL is the designated national contact point and office for this field of tasks and temporarily establishes a specialized organisational structure in the case of a crisis. A task force of both the Länder and the federal government can also be set up in such cases. As part of the European rapid alert system, this department is also a national point of contact for the flow of information between the EU and the federal states. In the field of data management and analysis the BVL merges the data on food and feed safety collected by the Länder, assesses them and issues the required reports for the federal government and the European Commission. As a national contact point for the worldwide information system InfoSan, the BVL also contributes to food safety on an international level.
Group "Strategic Management": Unit 131 represents the link between the technical requirements of the department and a needs-based implementation of the IT infrastructure. In addition to coordinating IT requirements, the unit supports the specialist department in the implementation of IT projects. Unit 132 is the coordinating body for the transmission, exchange and collection of official control data of the federal states in the field of food safety and consumer protection. For this method, which is standardized throughout Germany, the unit provides coding catalogs, reporting formats and technical systems and develops them further in various committees with the federal states. In Unit 133, the data analysis of the official control data of the federal states takes place in the following areas: Plant protection product residues, contaminants, zoonoses and border control investigations. The data is continuously processed for the Federal Government, the European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Department 2: Plant Protection Products
The Plant Protection Product department is responsible for authorising plant protection products in Germany and is the national coordination point for evaluating active substances in plant protection products in the EU. In the authorisation procedure, the BVL is responsible for risk management, which is designed to avoid negative effects from plant protection products on humans, animals and the environment.
Department 3: Veterinary Drugs
Department 3 is responsible for authorising veterinary drugs and participating in EU authorisation procedures in Germany. If authorised veterinary drugs produce unwanted effects, veterinarians and pharmaceutical companies are required to report this to the BVL.
Department 4: Genetic Engineering
Applications for releasing genetically modified organisms (GMO) for scientific trials are examined and decided upon by the Genetic Engineering department of the BVL. If genetically modified organisms are to be cultivated for commercial purposes, the BVL gives its opinion as the national authority in the EU's approval procedure. The Central Commission for Biological Safety (ZKBS) is situated in the Genetic Engineering department of the BVL. The ZKBS advises the federal government and federal states. In addition, the Genetic Engineering department manages the international information exchange for Germany on live GMOs in the Biosafety Clearing House.
Department 5: Method Standardisation, Reference Laboratories, Resistance to Antibiotics
The laboratories of the BVL are grouped together in department 5: Method Standardisation, Reference Laboratories, Resistance to Antibiotics. Eight national and one European reference laboratory for certain residues and contaminants support the official food monitoring laboratories. The laboratory "Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring" examines to what extent bacteria that cause illnesses to animals used for food are sensitive to different antibiotics and develops measures that counteract the development of resistance.
The department also includes the office for the Official Collection of Methods of Analysis. Its tasks are the development, standardisation and validation of sampling and analysis methods, using research groups for different product categories and methods.
Unit 180 "Export Affairs -export regulations and listing procedures"
The unit 180 advises and coordinates matters relating to the export of animals, food and feed. The unit accompanies listing procedures and coordinates the processing of complaints and the implementation of audits by authorities in the target countries. The federal and state export veterinary group is part of the department. It develops guidelines and / or implementation instructions for the official control of the companies involved in export and their products, with the aim of a nationwide implementation of the requirements of the target countries.
