What is EURL POPs?

This document summarizes background information and synthesises of supporting information on the prioritisation of specific PCN congeners in food. It is intended to support laboratories in method development and also to support future assessments with relevant as well as harmonised data. The guidance in this document is intended for laboratories involved in the official control of contaminants in food as part of the EURL’s official mandate and scope of work.

In this Guidance Document on the Estimation of LOQ for Measurements in the Field of Contaminants in Feed and Food of 2022 the four EURLs working in the field of contaminants - EURL for metals and nitrogenous compounds (MN), EURL for mycotoxins and plant toxins (MP), EURL for processing contaminants (PC) and EURL for halogenated POPs in feed and food (POPs - aim to describe, in a joint document, one recommended and generally applicable approach for estimation of LOQ. Other approaches may then be used only for sound reasons, e.g. if required by EU legislation or in case of elevated background levels.

This interlaboratory study (ILS) on the determination of several brominated contaminants (BCons), polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) and chlorinated paraffins (CPs) in fish oil is organized by the EURL for halogenated POPs in Feed and Food to be performed between May and September 2022 (first deadline, closed), April 2023 (second deadline) and until October 2023 (third round). The objective is to characterize a quality control material for method development purpose and quality control during routine analysis. Therefore up to five sets of results for all analyte groups can be reported until each deadline using the same or different methods. In addition, the focus is on the assessment of intra- and interlaboratory comparability of results from PBDEs, HBCDDs, TBBPA, eBFRs, PBDD/Fs, PXDD/Fs, PCNs and CPs in two fish oil samples. As a second exercise ready to measure solutions of CP technical mixtures are prepared to assess intra- and interlaboratory comparability of CP results. Laboratories performing CP analysis, or even just starting to analyse CPs, are encouraged to submit at least total CP results for fish oil and technical mixture samples. Official laboratories, research laboratories, universities and commercial laboratories performing the analysis of samples taken by food business operators are invited to participate in this interlaboratory study.