Title: Comparison of DR-CALUX- and HRGCMS-derived TEQS: Introduction of conversion factors

Auteur(s): Besselink H ; Jonas A ; Pijnappels M ; Swinkels A ; Brouwer A ;  ; 

Year: 2003

Journal: Organohalogen Compounds

Subject(s): DR CALUX ; food ; feed ; limit-values ; dioxins ; dioxin ; furans ; bioassay ; monitoring ; PCBs ; PCB ; TEQ ;  ; 

Summary: Food safety is a high priority issue for the feed and food industry, retailers and governmental regulators nowadays. At the present time stringent EU limit values are enforced for dioxins and furans in feed and food. The use of bioassays, like the DR-CALUX® system for monitoring dioxins in food and feed, allows the (pre)-selection of samples suspected of being contaminated above limit values with dioxins and/or furans. BDS' DR- CALUX® bioassay system, in its present configuration, measures tbe contribution of both dioxins/furans and dioxin-like PCBs. For some matrices such as fishoil, the expected contribution of dioxin-like PCBs may be considerable. By applying the C-SPLIT method in combination with the DR-CALUX® bioassay, it is possible to discriminate between TEQ contributions by dioxins/furans on one hand and dioxin-like PCBs on the other hand. Although the overall comparison of DR-CALUX®-derived TEQs witb HRGCMS-derived TEQs is good, some consistent differences in results have been observed for some matrices as well. Here we report on tbe introduction of conversion factors to improve the comparison of HRGCMS and bioassay results for fish based products.