PROJECT ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 2: PERFLUORINATED HYDROCARBONS LEVELS IN FOOD SAMPLES

Activity leader: Dr. Roland Kallenborn

NILU will provide comprehensive training to ICT Prague staff at NILU to transfer knowledge on analytical procedures for analyses of the wide range of perfluorinated compounds in biotic matrices, included fish. These methods will be modified / implemented and validated according to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 to prepare text of standard operation procedure for determination of PFC in fish and other food commodities. Following in-house validation ICT will disseminate the obtained knowledge on PFC analysis to all potential end-users, including Czech Agricultural Food Inspection, which is responsible together with State Veterinary Administration and National Institute of Public Health for monitoring of food supply safety.

QA/QC will be performed between them within inter-laboratory comparison using well characterized samples and standard materials.

ICT Prague, Department of Food Chemistry and Analysis, has available all relevant analytical instrumentation to perform both sample treatment and instrumental analyses of perfluorinated compounds in different types of matrices. Long-term experiences obtained within management of other projects focused on assessment of the Czech aquatic ecosystem contamination by different classes of POPs and development and validation of appropriate analytical methods will be also applied to implement provided methods and deliver new ones. LC-MS based methods consisting of three steps: extraction of target analytes, purification of crude extracts and identification and quantification. Regarding the analytical tools, modern instrumental systems, relevant to achieving project objectives, are available at applicant´s laboratory, both for realization of sample preparation (isolation of analytes, purification of crude extract) terminal determinative step (LC-MS/MS system Quattro Premier Waters / HPLC separation unit Alliance 2695XE and UPLC Acquity). Performance characteristics (recovery, limit of detection repeatability of measurements, robustness) of the ultra-trace analytical procedure capable to control low to sub pg/g ww (ppt) levels will be obtained within a validation process for a range of target matrices.

Target analytes:

PFCs and their precursors: PFOS, perfluorocarboxylates C6 to C15, perfluorosulfonates C4, C6, C8 and C10, fluorooctane sulfonamides (N-Me-FOSA, N-Et-FOSA, N-Me-FOSE, N-Et-FOSE), fluorobutane sulfonamides (N-Me-FBSA, N-Me-FBSE), fluorotelomer alcohols (6:2 FTOH, 8:2 FTOH, 10:2 FTOH)