What is EFFCA

EFFCA (the European Food & Feed Cultures Association) is an european association of cultures manufacturers. It was founded in January 1992 to represent food and feed cultures manufacturers in discussions with the regulatory health authorities of the European Union, the Codex Alimentarius and other national and international bodies.

Cultures of interest to EFFCA members are various genera of bacterias, notably lactic acid bacterias (LAB), edible moulds and yeasts.

1. EFFCA aims :

• To represent and protect the interests of its members before national and international organisations ;
• To harmonise standards, specifications, controls and analytical methods ;
• To draw up nomenclatures and guidelines, and to take any step to facilitate and develop a positive and constructive dialogue with the regulators of any of its products which are currently used as processing aids in processed foods, as well as feed additives in animal nutrition ;
• To provide information to its members about EU directives and Codex recommendations and to inform legislators on the industry's position on proposed regulations ;
• To provide quality products and to inform consumers on their characteristics.

2. EFFCA professional relationship

EFFCA maintains regular relationships with other european or world professional organisations working in the same or related fields such as IDF (International Dairy Federation), AMAFE (Association of Manufacturers of Animal Derived Food Enzymes), Europabio (European Association for Bio Industries), FEFANA (European federation of Manufacturers of Ingredients for Animal Nutrition), ELC (European Federation of Food Additives and Enzymes Manufacturers), LABIP (Lactic Acid Bacteria Industrial Platform) and EDA (European Dairy Association), as well as national bodies (ASSOLATTE, SPPAIL).

3. Knowledge of cultures

EFFCA intends to promote the knowledge of cultures. A good knowledge of cultures is an important tool to achieve :

• Safety in end products
• Customer satisfaction
• A better approach of health problems
• An improvement in quality standards.

To that effect, EFFCA adopts position papers on scientific and regulatory issues. Position papers have already been adopted on the following subjects :

• A Code of Ethics,
• Guidelines for current Good Manufacturing Practice
• Guidelines for the application of the HACCP principle
• Minimal definition of starter cultures
• Cultures in the food and feed industry.

4. Members

Today, EFFCA comprises fourteen manufacturing companies from six EU member states. These companies have affiliates all over the world. They are :

• Alce Probiotical Italy
• Centro Sperimentale del Latte Italy
• Chr. Hansen Denmark
• CSK Food Enrichment Netherlands
• Danisco Culture France
• Cargill France
• DSM Food Specialties Netherlands
• A. Blessing Sudgewurz GmbH Germany
• Lallemand France
• Kerry Bioscience Netherlands
• Sacco Italy
• Standa Industrie France
• Valio Finland

EFFCA is managed by a Board of Directors. An annual General Assembly sets the policies of the association.