Implementation of sample pooling to strengthen the surveillance of food chemical safety: Case study of nDL-PCBs in pork meat

• Published in: Food chemistry 2024-02, Vol.433, p.137111-137111, Article 137111
• Main Authors: Ratel, Jérémy, Vigneau, Evelyne, Mercier, Frédéric, Lebreton, Sebastien, Nguyen, Thi Ly Na, Courcoux, Philippe, Engel, Erwan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; Dorfman’s strategy; Food chemical safety; Meat; Non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls; Numerical simulations; Sample pooling
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.137111

[Display omitted] •The use of sample pooling to strengthen food safety surveillance was assessed.•The surveillance of nDL-PCBs in pork meat was selected as a case study.•Analytical accuracy and uncertainty were validated for pool sizes of up to 100.•Numerical simulations of pooling, based on Dorfman testing, were run.•Pooling markedly reduces test numbers while preserving diagnostic efficiency. Current food chemical safety surveillance relies on highly sensitive but costly analyses, with low throughput. A promising option is a sample pooling-based approach: instead of analyzing samples one-by-one, high-sensitivity methods could be used to evaluate pools of n samples. A proof-of-concept was sought using the surveillance of nDL-PCBs in pork meat. The practical feasibility of producing large pools (up to 200 samples) was studied, and accuracy of results for the nDL-PCBs were validated for pool sizes up to 100. Numerical simulation of pooling strategies yielded optimal numbers of samples to be pooled to obtain best cost-effectiveness. Based on pooling strategy, simulations showed that for a realistic contamination prevalence of 0.1%, analyzing pools of 25 samples would allow the total number of tests to be reduced 19-fold compared with one-by-one analysis, while retaining the sensitivity and specificity.