European standardization of methods for pesticide residue analysis in foods - current status

The aim of this paper is to inform all scientists working in pesticide residue analysis on the contents, size and background of European standards (ENs) in this area. These ENs were established by a Technical Committee (TC 275) of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and each CEN member country is obliged to implement them as national standards. EN 1528:1996 comprises eight methods for the multiresidue determination of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fatty foods. For non-fatty foods such as fruits and vegetables, EN 12 393:1998 provides five multi-residue methods. In addition, three methods for dithiocarbamate fungicides in EN 12 396: 1998/2000 and two methods for bromide residues in EN 13 191:2000 are already available. In this way, a valuable harmonization of methods across Europe is achieved which is useful for quality control in the food industry as well as in official food inspection.