The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) of the European Commission¿s Joint Research Centre (JRC) was requested by the Directorate General Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) to organise a proficiency test on the determination of mineral oil in sunflower oil. The aim of this test was to evaluate the comparability of analysis results gained by laboratories in EU and in Ukraine.
The study was free of charge for the participants. The organisation of the study as well as the evaluation of the results was done in accordance with 'The International Harmonised Protocol for the Proficiency Testing of Analytical Chemistry Laboratories' and ISO 43.
Altogether 62 laboratories from 19 EU Member States, Switzerland and Ukraine subscribed for participation in the study. The participants were asked to determine the mineral oil content in the test samples by application of their in-house analysis methods. In total, 55 sets of results were reported to the organisers of the study.
The performance of laboratories for the oil samples was expressed by z-scores and by relative bias for the mineral oil solution in n-heptane.
The percentage of successful laboratories in the determination of the mineral oil content of sunflower oil was for all sunflower oil test materials about 80 %JRC.D.8-Food safety and qualit
