Aspetti metodologici innovativi nella determinazione quali-quantitativa di contaminanti ambientali in prodotti della pesca
The legislation on environmental contaminants in food is constantly evolving. Some of these contaminants have already been the subject of official control of the food chain, others, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, are newly added, while others, such as organometallic compounds, are not yet covered. Present work is based on the development of innovative techniques aimed at the implementation of routine analytical methods for the control of substances recently and probable future inclusion in the Official monitoring plans, such as non dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (NDL-PCB) and compounds of arsenic in highly contaminated products such as fishery products. Regarding the NDL-PCB, this work aims to focus on validation study of an analytical screening method, aimed to detection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fish intended for human consumption, as required by Commission Decision 657/2002/EC. Regarding arsenic, the Committee of Experts of the FAO/WHO defined a tolerable intake only for inorganic arsenic, although it is known the toxicity of some organoarsenic compounds; here we present the validation study of a new method for a rapid and reliable speciation of these compounds in mussels. This work has allowed us to achieve several goals. Firstly, it has been provided an example, so far not present in the scientific literature, of application of the European requirements for accreditation of the multiresidual screening method for NDL-PCBs determination, whose validity has been proved obtaining the recognition by the Italian accreditation body "Accredia". Moreover, guidance to the regulation has been also provided by the inclusion of substances characterized by overt toxicity and evident presence in foods of animal origin, which are not covered by national and European legislation, such as the various forms of arsenic; moreover, the analytical solutions to laboratories for Official control were provided.