CEN Update: Information affecting chemical measurements June 2023
Updates by the European standardisation organisation, CEN, some of which are relevant to chemical and bio measurements in support of regulation.
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) provides voluntary European Standards and related products and services for the benefit of businesses, consumers and other standard users in Europe.
Each year a work plan is published that gives an overview of standardisation developments and strategic priority areas for CEN (and CENELEC for Electrotechnical Standardization) across 14 business sectors.
One key sector is Food and Agriculture, and Work Programme 2023 (cencenelec.eu) provides information on activities in Technical Committees (TCs) to develop analytical standards relating to food and animal feed measuring contaminants, pesticides, allergens and toxins.
Food allergens
Highlighted in the Work Programme for 2023 is CEN/ TC 275 ‘Food analysis - Horizontal methods’ who are finalising a series of standards dedicated to the detection of food allergens by molecular biological methods (i.e. EN 15634 series). This will also include publishing EN 17855, which specifies minimum performance requirements for methods that quantify food allergens.
Milk and milk products
Also, CEN/TC 302 ‘Milk and milk products - Methods of sampling and analysis’ are developing standards for characterisation and quality including determination of amino acids in infant formula and other dairy products.
Food authenticity
Government Chemist staff, as part of the UK delegation and through BSI, are leading / contributing actively to the work of CEN/TC 460 ‘Food Authenticity’ and its Working Groups.
Algae and algae-based products
An area of increasing interest is algae and algae-based products as a valuable source for carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and several pigments in food and supplements with standards being developed as reported by CEN.
Algae and algae-based products were the subject of a recent presentation at the Government Conference Government Chemist Conference: 20-21 June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) by a speaker from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).