LABORATORIO CIFGA SA

Their core work

CIFGA is a Galician analytical laboratory specializing in aquatic biotoxins — particularly the production of certified reference standards and analytical methods for detecting marine and freshwater toxins. Their commercial work centers on providing the calibration materials that food safety laboratories across Europe use to test seafood and water for dangerous toxins. In CIGUALERT they led the development of reference standards for ciguatoxins, a marine toxin with no reliable detection tools at the time; in TOXICROP they contributed their toxin analysis expertise to a surveillance program covering cyanotoxins in agricultural irrigation water. They occupy a narrow but critical niche in the food safety and environmental monitoring supply chain.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (2015), CIFGA's focus was narrowly on marine ciguatoxins — a highly specific problem affecting tropical and subtropical seafood safety, where a lack of reliable reference standards was the core gap they addressed. By 2019, their scope shifted toward freshwater cyanotoxins and agricultural risk, joining TOXICROP's surveillance and remediation effort for irrigation water contamination. The trajectory suggests a deliberate expansion from marine food safety into the broader field of aquatic biotoxin monitoring, covering both coastal and inland water systems.

CIFGA is moving from a marine-only biotoxin specialist toward a full-spectrum aquatic toxin laboratory, with growing relevance to agricultural water safety and environmental monitoring beyond seafood.

How they like to work

CIFGA has demonstrated both coordinating and partnering roles across just two projects, which suggests a flexible collaboration posture rather than a fixed one. As coordinator of CIGUALERT (an SME Instrument Phase 1 grant), they show the capacity to lead small, focused technical projects independently. As a participant in the much larger TOXICROP consortium (MSCA-RISE), they contribute specialized analytical expertise within a broader research network. Their 13 unique partners across 9 countries from only two projects indicates they plug into wide international networks rather than working with a recurring closed circle.

Despite only two H2020 projects, CIFGA has worked with 13 distinct partners across 9 countries, an unusually broad footprint for an SME of this size. Their participation in an MSCA-RISE mobility scheme reflects genuine integration into international research networks spanning multiple European and non-European institutions.

What sets them apart

CIFGA occupies one of the smallest, most defensible niches in European food safety science: producing certified reference materials for biotoxins that most laboratories cannot make themselves. Reference material producers are rare, and marine biotoxin standards in particular are regulated, technically demanding, and not easily replicated by generalist labs. For any consortium working on seafood safety, HAB monitoring, water quality, or agricultural risk from toxin-contaminated irrigation, CIFGA offers something that cannot be substituted by a university chemistry group — a commercially accredited, regulatory-grade analytical backbone.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CIGUALERT
  CIFGA led this project as coordinator under the SME Instrument — a competitive grant reserved for commercially viable innovations — targeting ciguatoxin reference standards, a detection gap with direct implications for seafood importers and public health authorities.
• TOXICROP
  A five-year MSCA-RISE project extending CIFGA's scope into freshwater cyanotoxins and crop irrigation safety, signaling a strategic pivot and integration into a large international research consortium.