Division C.3.3.2 ‘Fitness-for-purpose’ approach

For in-house validated methods, as an alternative a ‘fitness-for-purpose’ approach^f1 may be used to assess their suitability for official control. Methods suitable for official control shall produce results with a combined standard measurement uncertainty (u) less than the maximum standard measurement uncertainty calculated using the formula below:

where:

• Uf is the maximum standard measurement uncertainty (μg/kg);

• LOD is the limit of detection of the method (μg/kg). The LOD must meet the performance criteria set out in point C.3.3.1 for the concentration of interest;

• C is the concentration of interest (μg/kg);

• α is a numeric factor to be used depending on the value of C. The values to be used are given in Table 6.