Fera’s food safety experts can highlight the presence of Chloramphenicol across a range of food types including; poultry and game, seafood, fish, red meat and offal, honey, eggs & milk, to a reporting limit of half the assigned MRPL value. The standard turnaround offered is 10 working days, but a more rapid turnaround is also available.

Chloramphenicol currently has Annex IV classification under Commission Regulation (EU) 37/2010. A Minimum Required Performance Limit (MRPL) of 0.3 µg/kg has been set (Commission Decision 2003 / 181/ E). There is therefore a requirement for analytical methodology to monitor for residues of these compounds in foodstuffs of animal origin.

Chloramphenicol is a broad-spectrum antibiotic effective against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and, in the past, has been widely used to treat infections in both humans and animals. Chloramphenicol is now not authorised for use in food-producing animals in the European Union (EU) but may be used in human medicine and in treatments for non-food-producing animals. As a result effective due diligence activities should be undertaken.

As well as from its potential occurrence as a residue in food from illicit treatment of food-producing animals, chloramphenicol has also been used in feed and food enzyme products and may occur naturally in plants from its production by the soil bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae. All of these factors can increase consumer exposure to Chloramphenicol.

Testing is carried out using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS).
The method has been validated in accordance with the principles set out in Commission Decision 2002/657/EC.

The analysis is accredited to ISO17025 by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)

Confirmatory Analysis

Confirmatory analysis, where required, will be at the same value as the analysis performed. Fera will contact you beforehand to establish if the additional analysis is required. The delivery time for confirmatory results will be 10 working days from your instruction to proceed.