Routine, regulatory analysis of dioxins in food and feed samples

Demonstration of the robustness and productivity of the Thermo Scientific™ TSQ™ 9000 triple quadrupole GC-MS/MS system with Thermo Scientific™ Chromeleon™ Chromatography Data System software in the routine analysis of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans, dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and indicator PCBs in food and feed samples.

Introduction

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds are highly toxic substances classed as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Due to their high fat-solubility, dioxins accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals. As a result, more than 90% of human exposure to dioxins is through food, especially meat, dairy, fish, etc. Therefore, accurate monitoring of food and feed is essential to control dioxin uptake from the food chain.¹

In 2014 a change in European Commission regulations^2,3 permitted gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) to be used as an alternative to gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) for confirmatory analysis and for the control of maximum levels (MLs) and action levels (ALs) in certain food and feed samples. Even though the utility of GC-MS/MS for this application has been demonstrated in principle,⁴ there is a lack of robust data to validate the suitability of GC-MS/MS, especially for the long-term routine analysis of hundreds of samples. This is further confused by the absence of a clear protocol regarding the setting of appropriate limit of quantification (LOQ) values for GC-MS/MS analysis, with both signal-to-noise (S:N) and calibration-based approaches being used in some validations.

>> Download the full Application Note as PDF

Newsletters

Receive the latest pathologist news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.

I have read and understand the Privacy Notice*

Subscribe