Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced it will host two
seminars at the Dioxin
2014 International Symposium in Madrid, Spain. Food safety experts
Dr. Peter
Fürst, of Germany’s Chemical and Veterinary Analytical Institute
(CVUA-MEL), and Dr. Jean-François
(Jef) Focant, professor of organic and biological analytical
chemistry at the University of Liège, will present data pertaining to
recent dioxin screening and confirmation regulations enacted by the
European Commission. Seminars will be conducted Monday, Sept. 1, and
Thursday, Sept. 4.
The announcement comes just as EC regulations have changed to include
provisions for validating triple quadrupole GC/MS technology as a
confirmatory method for identifying dioxins, furans (PCDD/Fs) and
dioxin-like PCBs (DL-PCBs) in food and animal feed (EC
No. 589/2014 and 709/2014,
respectively).
“This new legislation represents an important step in further protecting
the global food chain through the ability of more labs to perform
testing,” said professor Focant. “In our lab we have already proven that
a method applied on an Agilent
7000C Triple Quadrupole GC/MS System meets official EC requirements
for the confirmatory analysis of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs in vegetable oil.
The validation will be extended to other matrices in the near future.”
Seminars
At a luncheon seminar on Monday, Dr. Fürst will present GC-MS/MS:
More Ions Means Much More than Lower Detection Limits—Application to
Demanding Dioxin Analysis in Food Samples.
At a luncheon seminar on Thursday, Dr. Focant will present Full
Validation of a GC-MS/MS Confirmatory Method for Dioxins Analysis
Following New European Regulations.
For more program information and to review speaker abstracts, click here.
Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds are highly toxic environmental
contaminants known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). By-products
of industrial and some natural processes, they are found throughout the
world and accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals. Chronic exposure to
these substances can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental
problems, and serious immune diseases.
“The major pathway of these contaminants is via food,” said Dr. Fürst,
whose laboratory was the first to fully evaluate a triple quadrupole
GC/MS system for dioxin analysis in food and feed, comparing samples
against sector mass spectrometers. “In our study, we were impressed that
Agilent’s instrument was able to unequivocally confirm results at
extremely low levels in food and feed. We were able to show for the
first time that triple quadrupole GC/MS can offer an effective
alternative to high-resolution mass spectrometry.”
“Routine measurement of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs at
sub-parts-per-trillion-levels is very challenging and requires the most
sensitive detection technology available—even when an extensive
extraction and clean-up process has been applied,” said John Lee, global
market manager of Agilent’s Food Science business. “Agilent’s
latest-generation triple quadrupole GC/MS systems provide this optimal
performance, combined with robust EI ion-source technology and heated
gold quadrupole design to ensure that the system stays clean and
performs consistently.”
“Traditionally, only a limited number of laboratories around the world
have had access to the sophisticated methodologies necessary for dioxins
and POPs analysis,” added Lee. “With new regulations and new methods to
more easily implement other key stages like extraction and clean-up, we
now see that many more food, environmental and agricultural labs can
readily perform rapid, affordable, high-volume dioxin screening and
confirmation with Agilent’s GC/MS/MS solutions.”
Agilent provides a complete line of solutions for food testing and
agriculture. For more information, visit Food
Authenticity, Quality and Profiling Solutions. The company’s
industry-leading GC/MS
solutions can be used in diverse applications such as food safety,
pharmaceutical research and development, environmental analysis,
forensic science, metabolomics, proteomics and clinical research.
About Peter Fürst
Professor Peter Fürst is the head of the Department of Central
Analytical Services in the Chemical and Veterinary Analytical Institute
(CVUA) in Munster, Germany. His team is involved in official European
Union food and feed control. Dr. Fürst is an expert in the analysis of
residues and contaminants in food, feed and human samples. He is member
of the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain since 2006.
Click here
to view a video and learn more about Professor Fürst and his work at
CVUA.
About Jean-François (Jef) Focant
Jean-François (Jef) Focant is a professor in the Department of Chemistry
at the University of Liège in Belgium, which is part of the EU’s
National Reference Laboratory Network for Dioxins and PCBs. The lab also
performs routine control work in food. Professor Focant was part of the
EU’s working group to establish the new regulation. He has been active
in the field of dioxin analyses for the past 15 years and chaired the
International Dioxin Symposium in Brussels in 2011.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the world's premier measurement
company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences,
diagnostics, electronics and communications. The company's 20,600
employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had
revenues of $6.8 billion in fiscal 2013. Information about Agilent is
available at www.agilent.com.
On Sept. 19, 2013, Agilent announced plans to separate into two publicly
traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of its electronic
measurement business. The new company is named Keysight Technologies,
Inc. The separation is expected to be completed in early November 2014.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Further technology, corporate citizenship and executive
news is available at www.agilent.com/go/news.
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