Revision of the methods of sampling and analysis for dioxins and PCBs

Performance criteria for sampling of foodstuffs for the food business operator’s own control are now binding

Maximum levels for dioxins apply for various food and animal feed on European level since 2001/2002 and since 2006 also for selected PCB congeners. Requirements concerning the sampling procedures and analytical methods are also set within the European Union. These were exclusively for the official control of food and feed. With the recent revision, the performance criteria for analytical methods are now also binding for the laboratories performing the analysis of samples taken by food and feed business operators. A significant innovation in the "technical changes" is the conversion of the calculation of the measurement uncertainty from the concept of the decision limit (decision limit; CCalpha) towards the concept of the expanded measurement uncertainty.

Eurofins GfA Lab Service GmbH is the Competence Centre for the analysis of dioxins and PCBs within the Eurofins Network of laboratories and already adopted the EU performance criteria as standard for the application of Eurofins’ analytical methods for dioxins and PCBs in food and animal feed years ago. For this reason, the obligatory implementation of the EU performance criteria will not lead to any changes in the cooperation with food and feed business operators with regard to time and costs or with regard to the quality of the analytical results.

Another change pertains the performance criteria for the sampling of foodstuffs in the context of the food business operator’s own control. Here the same or an equivalent sampling procedure is now to be applied, which is demonstrably as representative as the sampling procedure for official control.

More details can be found in the original regulation documents

Foodstuff: Regulation (EU) 2017/644

Feeding stuff: Regulation (EU) 2017/771

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