(1)

Regulation (EC) No 2065/2003 lays down provisions for the establishment of a list of primary products authorised for use as such in or on foods and for the production of smoke flavourings for use in or on foods within the Community. This list shall, among other things, contain a clear description and characterisation of each primary product.

(2)

Detailed information about the qualitative and quantitative chemical composition of the primary product is necessary for the scientific evaluation. The portions which have not been identified, i.e. the amount of substances whose chemical structure is not known, should be as small as possible.

(3)

It is therefore necessary to establish minimum performance criteria, in this context referred to as quality criteria, to which the method of analysis shall comply in order to ensure that laboratories use methods with the necessary level of performance.

(4)

Smoked foods in general give rise to health concerns, especially with respect to the possible presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

(5)

The person who intends to place primary products on the market should submit all the information necessary for the safety assessment. This information should contain a proposed validated method for sampling, identification and characterisation of the primary product.

(6)

Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (2), lays down general requirements for methods of sampling and analysis.

(7)

The Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) named 15 PAHs as potentially genotoxic and carcinogenic to humans in an opinion on the risks to human health of PAH in food, expressed on 4 December 2002 (3). They represent a priority group in the assessment of the risk of long-term adverse health effects following dietary intake of PAHs. Their presence in primary products should — as a consequence — be analysed.

(8)

The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) of the Commission Directorate General Joint Research Centre carried out collaborative studies for analysing the chemical composition of primary products and for quantifying the concentration of the 15 PAHs therein. The results of these trials are in part published in the Report on the Collaborative Trial for Validation of two Methods for the Quantification of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Primary Smoke Condensates (4).

(9)

To describe the precision of the method the repeatability standard deviation as defined in ISO 5725-1 (5) is required. It should be estimated using data from a single-laboratory validation exercise giving Si as described in the Harmonized Guidelines for Single-Laboratory Validation of Methods of Analysis (6) or a collaborative trial giving Sr and SR as described in the Protocol for the design, conduct and interpretation of method-performance studies (7).

(10)

A full validation of methods to analyse the composition of primary products, with a maximum of compounds identified, is not achievable. The high number of analytes gives rise to incalculable amount of work which is impractical. If however mass spectrometry is used for the detection of compounds, the resulting mass spectra can be compared to published data (8) or to mass spectral libraries and a tentative identification of the compounds can be achieved.

(11)

Based on the results obtained in the inter-laboratory validation study on PAHs and following Commission Decision 2002/657/EC (9), minimum quality criteria for any suitable analytical method for determination of PAHs in all primary products have been proposed.

(12)

Following the recommendation given in the ISO, IUPAC, and AOAC International Harmonized Guidelines for the Use of Recovery Information in Analytical Measurement, the analytical results should be corrected for recovery.

(13)

The European Food Safety Authority has given scientific and technical assistance for the elaboration of the quality criteria for validated methods for identification and characterisation of primary smoke products laid down in this regulation.

(14)

The quality criteria can be adapted, to take into account advances in scientific and technological knowledge.

(15)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,