The food and feed chains - a possible strategy for the production of certified reference materials (CRMs) in the area of mycotoxins?

Mycotoxin measurements at critical steps of the food and feed chains need to be accurate and precise to avoid high contents of mycotoxins in foods and feeds. This article aims to discuss the production of new Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) for measurements performed at such critical steps of the food and feed chains. It concludes that this production is limited in itself due to the following reasons: (a) only relative changes are of interest during initial and final product manufacturing; (b) development of a calibration tree based on a flexible calibration scheme (i.e. from field calibration via matrix CRMs, pure reference compounds to the mass) which ensures the traceability of analyses; (c) influences due to the degree of fungal infestation and invasion, mycotoxin contamination; (d) basic chemical, physical and toxicological (i.e. general routes of absorption, distribution and excretion of toxins in the body as well as organs involved in biotransformation of toxins) behaviour of mycotoxins; (e) raw material and seed production conditions, food and feed processing, storage; (f) consumer habits; (g) health requirements. These reasons form vital parts of the food and feed chains. It is therefore concluded that the food and feed chains provide a possible strategy for establishing the production of new CRMs in the area of mycotoxins. The production of the available CRMs already followed this strategy which is understood to form an integral part of the approach followed by the BCR (predessessor of the SM/T-Programme) for the production of environmental type matrix RMs certified for various contents of different elements. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.