Dioxins & Dioxin-Like Compounds
Confidently analyze dioxins, furans and dioxin-like PCBs in food at low levels according to national and international regulations. Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) are polychlorinated aromatic compounds linked to developmental problems, immune system damage, and cancer. If no precaution are taken, they can be released into the environment during industrial processes such as metallurgy and waste incineration before accumulating in the food chain. Improper disposal of waste PCB-based industrial oils, may also result in the release of dioxins into the environment or can directly contaminate human food and animal feed supplies.
It is important to perform dioxin testing on food samples including meat, dairy and fish, according to national or international regulations. Such testing needs to detect these compounds at very low levels and there is a need for greater testing capacity in control labs because of the increasingly global nature of the food supply chain and especially when a crisis occurs.
Agilent collaborates with key EU opinion leaders on the use of triple quadrupole GC/MS/MS technology to produce high quality methods and data that have influenced recent regulation changes. The result is that triple quadrupole GC/MS/MS technology is now approved as a confirmatory method for the presence and level of PCDDs, PCDFs, and, DL-PCB's in food/feed and the Agilent system has recently been widely adopted in validated operations.
The Agilent method features a rugged system with high sensitivity EI Ion Source, access to an innovative database of Locked Retention Times and SRM transitions for PCDDs, PCDFs, PCBs and their 13C isotope labelled standards, and a special report to calculate the Toxic equivalent (TEQ) of each sample in accordance with Food and Feed regulations. Combined with the appropriate sample preparation approach, highly repeatable measurements and quantitation down to low fg/g levels are possible in complex matrices.
