Central Science Laboratory

The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) was an executive agency of the UK government branch, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It is now part of the Food and Environment Research Agency, which is in turn part of DEFRA.

It specialises in sciences which form the basis of agriculture for sustainable crop production, environmental management and conservation and in food safety and quality. It also houses FAPAS and the National Collection of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria.

The Central Science laboratory (CSL) was the UK's foremost public sector laboratory in the fields of agriculture, food and the environment. As an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), CSL was responsible for the delivery of science in support of Government objectives.

Officially launched in 1992 CSL’s scientific expertise dates back to 1914, through the bringing together scientific expertise vested in a number of other scientific laboratories.

A new facility at Sand Hutton was completed in 1996 for 134 million pounds the moving of the Aberdeen and Norwich facilities to the Sand Hutton site was not part of the initial centralization plan but was subsequently carried out. The site is now the home of The Food and Environment Research Agency.

In 1929 the Hurworth Estate, Slough - consisting of a moderate-sized house and out-buildings, with adjoining land - was purchased by the Imperial College of Science and Technology for use as a biological field station. The grounds were used by the Botany Department for growing experimental crops and the main house by the Department of Zoology and Entomology and the Department of Agricultural Chemistry as a base for investigations into the biology and control of insect pests of cargoes of cacao and dried fruit stored in warehouses in London.

In 1938 concern over the Government's strategic storage of grain and flour led to a survey of pests of stored commodities. The survey revealed the need for long-term research and in 1940 the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which was responsible for the bulk of government-financed research on food, set up the Pest Infestation Laboratory on the Slough site. Research initially focused on protecting the security of foodstuffs held under wartime conditions.

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