History

Eleven years after the creation of the National Veterinary School of Nantes (1979), the Laboratoire des Dosages Hormonaux becomes the LDH / LNR after being appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture as National Reference Laboratory for the surveillance and control of growth promoters in animal and animal products.

In 1995, the structure was for the first time in its history accredited by COFRAC according to the EN 45001 standard, and later on to the new version of this standard (ISO17025).

In 2000, the laboratory becomes National Reference Laboratory for the control of dioxins and changes its name in order to integrate environmental contaminants and better stick to its activities. It becomes LABERCA.

In 2001, the unit sets up an international training for third countries targeting the control systems for residues and contaminants in food; the acronym given to this training is SARAF for School for Advanced Residue Analysis in Food.  

In 2003, LABERCA certifies its Research activities according to the ISO9001 standard. Several years later, SARAF is also ISO9001 certified, followed by the analytical chemistry platform.

It celebrates its 100th rank A scientific publication in international peer-reviewed journals in 2007. In the meantime, LABERCA's NRL activity has expanded its scope by first hooking polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, then melamine and finally non dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls to its reference mandate.

As of 2009, the laboratory workforce is growing significantly; the structure is better equipped to enter the major European research projects (FP6, FP7) and to invest in large national studies first alongside AFSSA (Anses) and then InVS (SPF). The unit will pass the evaluations of its activities by the AERES then by the HCERES by hanging respectively an A + and an excellent mention for its Research. The next evaluation is planned for the end of 2020.

In 2015, the laboratory gets accredited for the organisation of inter-laboratory tests according to ISO 17043.

In 2017, LABERCA becomes Joint Research Unit Oniris-INRAE, ALIM-H department  and enters the European project H2020 HBM4EU.

In 2018, LABERCA integrates the coordination unit of the newly created food chain monitoring platform (PF SCA), coordinated by the DGAL.

In 2019, the structure celebrates its 400th publication in international scientific journals.