L 221/106
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
26.8.2022
(6)
In light of the opinion by the Authority, occurrence data for a wide range of PFASs should be gathered in foods which are relevant for the human exposure to PFASs in order to support a dietary exposure assessment and assess the need to regulate these substances in specific commodities.
To this end, specific foods from specific production types or with specific characteristics, for which data are lacking, should be monitored and an estimate of the processing factors for various processed products provided.
(7)
Follow-up investigations towards the sources of contamination are required to allow the implementation of follow-up measures to avoid the occurrence of PFASs in food.
In order to provide guidance in this regard, it is appropriate to set indicative levels of concentrations of PFASs in food.
Those levels should not affect the possibility to place on the market any food, but investigations should be carried out when the concentration of PFASs in a foodstuff exceeds those levels.
In order to quantify concentrations of PFASs in the quantities in which they occur, sufficiently sensitive methods should be used.
This should be encouraged by recommending target limits of quantification.
(8)
Food of animal origin is an important contributor to the human exposure to PFASs.
The Authority concluded that PFASs transfer from feed to animal derived food, with clear differences between species and the type of PFASs.
Such PFASs transfer may also occur from soil ingested by foraging farm animals and from drinking water for animals.
Therefore, for the follow-up investigations aiming at determining the causes of contamination, where the maximum levels of PFASs in food of animal origin set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 (4) are exceeded, it is important that laboratories are able to also control feed, animal drinking water and the soil on which animals live.
However, only few data are currently available concerning the occurrence of PFASs in Union feed and allowing to study feed as a source of PFASs in food of animal origin.
As only a limited number of laboratories is able to analyse PFASs in feed, further work is being undertaken by the European Reference Laboratory for halogenated persistent organic pollutants in feed and food, to help the laboratories to develop such capability.
While that work should allow for the adoption in the future of further recommendations concerning PFASs in feed, once there is a sufficient analytical capability among the laboratories, in the meanwhile, those Member States, whose laboratories are already able to analyse PFASs in feed, should be recommended to already do so and, in those Member States which do not have the required analytical capability yet, the laboratories should already validate analytical methods for PFASs in feed.
(9)
In order to ensure that the samples are representative for the sampled lot, the sampling procedures as laid down in the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1428 (5) laying down methods of sampling and analysis for the control of perfluoroalkyl substances in certain foodstuffs should be followed,
HEREBY RECOMMENDS:
1.
Member States, in collaboration with food business operators, should monitor during the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 the presence of PFASs in food.
Member States should test for the presence in food of the following PFASs: (a) Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS); (b) Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA); (c) Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA); (d) Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS).
Member States should, if possible, test also for the presence of compounds which are similar to PFOS, PFOA, PFNA and PFHxS, but have a different alkyl chain and with relevant occurrence in food, drinking water and/or human serum such as: (a) Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA); (b) Perfluoropentanoic acid (PFPeA);
(4) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 of 19 December 2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs (OJ L 364, 20.12.2006, p. 5).
(5) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1428 of 24 August 2022 laying down methods of sampling and analysis for the control of perfluoroalkyl substances in certain foodstuffs (see page 66 of this Official Journal).