NIAS ( Not Intentionally Added Substances) Accreditation NIAS testing

Food Contact Center is the first laboratory who have developed screening NIAS methods with both GC MS and LC QTOF techniques and to have them accredited.

For the analysis of volatile and semi-volatile substances in GC MS there is a universal library of compounds (NIST library) used and usable by all laboratories, which the Food Contact Center constantly updates on the basis of its own analysis on FCM.

For LC QTOF analysis of non-volatile and polar substances, there are no compound identification libraries available on the analytical instrumentation market; for this reason Food Contact Center independently but with collaborations with SCIEX, University and CNR has developed, thanks to a work of several years, a proprietary library of over 12.000 molecules. A specific library of over 10.000 compounds is reserved for PFAS substances.

The laboratory chose to carry out tests not of content but of migration for the research of NIAS, to have results directly comparable with the legal limits. This is because if high concentrations of NIAS are found in content tests, it is necessary to carry out furthet analysis such as migration, this lenghtens the analysis times and involves an increase in costs and energy.

A specific library dedicated to PFAS contains over 10.000 molecules, as per EPA listings.