Adapting quality inspection to the European standards for the determination of the polyunsaturated fatty acids from animal products

Abstract

One of the big problems of chemical analysis is to ensure its quality and to increase the confidence in the analytical results yielded by a chemical or instrumental analysis. The new internal norms for animal products quality (ANSVSA order 51/2005 regarding the performance of the analytical methods of analysis and data interpretation), aligned to EU requirements, required a unique system of inspection. These requirements stipulate the obligation of the laboratories inspecting animal products to validate each assay method, adapted to the particular type of sample. We therefore aimed to validate the chromatographic method of determining the linoleic acid from meat products. The parameters determined for the validation of this method were in agreement with SR EN ISO/CEI 17025:2005 and refer to: accuracy, reproducibility, sensitivity, precision, limit of detection and limit of quantification. For validation we only used reference materials and certified standards of analytical purity. We also calculated the incertitude for the validated method. The control diagrams obtained during two months show that the 0.01176 reproducibility of the equipment was higher than the repeatability (r) of 0.0079; 95.60% tracing and ±0.69 µg/g incertitude for linoleic acid determination. The results prove that the method operates within the admitted limits. The validated method is adequate for linoleic acid determination in animal products