Analytical accuracy for trace elements in food: A graphical approach to support uncertainty analysis in assessing dietary exposure

摘要

Food safety and the free movement of food commodities of animal origin in Europe has promoted more exchange and sharing of information and experience among the member states, thus increasing mutual confidence as well as generating large amount of experimental data from coordinated activities. In the frame of the proficiency tests schemes conducted by the Community Reference Laboratory for residues and contaminants in the food of animal origin, the network of National Reference Laboratories generated abundant experimental information on the quantification of trace elements (TEs). The measurement uncertainties of results obtained by specific analytical methods have different sources, remedies, and consequences on the interpretation of data, thus corroborating the relevance of metrological traceability for tiered probabilistic approaches in risk characterization. As recommended by the European Commission's Environment and Health Strategy, the mentioned dataset is presently further evaluated. In particular, the user-friendly information management graphical tool, namely the ‘Naji plot’, allows the assessment and comparison of the constituents of accuracy (bias and precision) of results from different analyte-matrix-technique combinations. It is applied in the present work to proceed in the characterization of these markers of exposure and to highlight the main measurements’ uncertainty factors potentially affecting the exposure estimates adopted in the risk assessment of potentially toxic or essential TEs.