European official control of food: Determination of histamine in fish products by a HPLC-UV-DAD method

Abstract

The evaluation of histamine content in fish and fishery products, responsible for scombroid poisoning, is essential to guarantee the safety of food. EU regulation requires validated analytical methods to ensure the verification of compliance with food law in official control activity. To this aim a previous gradient RP-HPLC method with DAD detection was modified and validated, according to international guidelines. The reliability of results was tested by analysing fish reference materials within the participation in European proficiency tests. The method has been used for the analysis of real samples consisting of several fish-based products with considerable differences in matrix composition. This characteristic is of great relevance to be able of apply the method in the field of official control.

Keywords: EU regulation; Fish; HPLC; Histamine; Official control in food; Validation.