ISO: International Organization for Standardization, developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 155 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.

CEN: European Committee for Standardization.
CEN is a system of formal processes to produce European Standards (ENs) and other approved documents available for purchase from their 30 National Members.

FWD-net: Food- and Waterborne disease network of the ECDC. Up to October 2007 this was called Enter-net and concerns an international surveillance network for human gastrointestinal infections. The participants in the network are the microbiologist in charge of the national reference laboratory for Salmonella, Campylobacter and verocytotoxin producing E. coli O157 (VTEC) infections, and the epidemiologist responsible for the national surveillance of these diseases.

ECDC: ECDC is the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. It is and EU agency which aims to strengthen Europe’s defenses against infectious diseases. The ECDC was established in 2005 and is seated in Stockholm, Sweden.

DG-Sanco: Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Affairs (European Commission)
DG-Sanco has the task of keeping up to date the EU laws on the safety of food and other products, on consumers' rights and on the protection of people's health. It is national, regional or even local governments in EU countries who actually apply the EU's health and consumer protection laws. It is the job of DG Sanco to make sure traders, manufacturers and food producers in their country observe the rules. DG Sanco checks that the rules are being applied properly in all EU countries.

DG-Sanco legislation: Commission regulations (EC). The EU integrated approach to food safety aims to assure a high level of food safety, animal health, animal welfare and plant health within the European Union through coherent farm-to-table measures and adequate monitoring, while ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market. The implementation of this approach involves the development of legislative.

EU Legislation: EUR-Lex provides direct access to European Union law. The system makes it possible to consult the Official Journal of the European Union and it includes inter alia the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals.

EFSA: The European Food Safety Authority
EFSA is the keystone of European Union (EU) risk assessment regarding food and feed safety. In close collaboration with national authorities and in open consultation with its stakeholders, EFSA provides independent scientific advice and clear communication on existing and emerging risks.

Health Protection Agency lenticules: Quantitative Cultures available in LENTICULE disc format. LENTICULE discs are plano-convex discs containing biologically active material in a solid water soluble matrix.

Community Reference Laboratories (CRLs) for Hygiene and control measures :

CRL for bacteriological and viral contaminants of bivalve molluscs

CRL for TSE’s

CRL for raw milk, for Listeria monocytogenes and for Staphylococci

CRL for marine biotoxines

CRL for Campylobacter

CRL for parasites and for E. coli (VTEC)

CRL for antimicrobial resistance

CRL for animal proteins