[Development of food and nutrition sciences in the 100-year history of the National Institute of Hygiene in Poland]

Abstract

Issues related to nutrition and food safety in Poland are included in the hundred-year history of the National Institute of Hygiene (PZH), which exists since 1918. The first scientific institution in Poland devoted to nutrition after the First World War was the Department of Biochemistry and Hygiene of Nutrition created in 1923 in the National School of Hygiene operating at the National Institute of Hygiene (PZH), whose director was Dr. Ludwik Rajchman. This Department was headed since 1925 by Kazimierz Funk, an outstanding scholar, who had already gained international fame as a discoverer of vitamins, and at PZH he investigated the effects of poor nutrition on health. After departure of Kazimierz Funk from Poland, the issues related to nutrition were dealt with by Dr. Gustaw Szulc and Dr. Aleksander Szczygieł, who since 1938 was the head of the Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition Hygiene. In 1963, all issues related to nutrition were transferred from the National Institute of Hygiene (PZH) to the newly founded Institute of Food and Nutrition in Warsaw, whose director was Aleksander Szczygieł. Food safety issues went to the National Institute of Hygiene in 1935 after incorporating into its structure the State Department of Food and Consumers Goods operating in Warsaw since 1919. Thanks to this reorganization, National Institute of Hygiene became the headquarter for all State Departments of Food and Consumer Goods in Poland. As soon as in the third year of their activity (in 1921), the laboratories of the State Department of Food and Consumers Goods examined over 65,000 samples of food products, detecting adulterations, false labeling, harmful admixtures or spoiled products in 44% of cases. The State Departments of Food and Consumer Goods in 1952 were transformed into Sanitary-Epidemiological Stations and incorporated into the structures of the State Sanitary Inspection. National Institute of Hygiene obtained the status of a research institute whose tasks were besides the scientific activity, the postgraduate education of the personnel of this Inspection. After the Second World War, prof. Stanisław Krauze, who was appointed the head of the Department of Food Research and Articles of Common Use at the PZH in 1935, continued his mission. Prof. Stanisław Krauze was recognized as the founder of the scientific bases of food control in Poland, food sciences and the initiator of microbiological food research. Prof. Stanisław Krauze was the head of this Department of PZH until 1962. Another head of this Department, prof. dr h.c. Maksym Nikonorow, introduced research on pesticide residues, food monitoring studies, as well as toxicological testing using laboratory animals, opening a new quality in the assessment of food safety. After his retirement this Department was led by prof. Halina Mazur (1981-1990) and assoc. prof. Kazimierz Karłowski (1990-2010). Since 2011 dr Jacek Postupolski is a head of this Department, which in 2012 has changed its name to the Department of Food Safety. The scientific staff of this Department, besides conducting scientific research, service, and educational activities, acts as experts for the Minister of Health, the Minister of Agriculture, and other national authorities, and cooperates with the FAO/WHO, the European Commission and Food and Feed Safety Authority (EFSA). In the Department there are accredited laboratories serving as the National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) which cooperate with the European Union Reference Laboratories (EU-RLs).

Keywords: nutrition; food safety; history of food control; consumer goods; PZH; Poland.