Automated Procedures in Iso17025 Routine Dioxin Laboratory:Impact on the Throughput

Looking back some 10 years ago, most of dioxin analyses required a least a few days to be completed. The major reason for this was the tremendous efforts to be provided to ensure proper quality of extracts prior to GC-MS measurement. Those efforts often translated in multi-steps procedures, including Soxhlet, liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid-phase extraction (SPE), sequential accelerated solvent extraction, (ASE), multiple column preparative liquid and size exclusion chromatography, ... most of them being carried out manually and repeatedly. Recent improvements in terms of viability of parallel automated systems contributed to speed up analytical processes. The ease of use, the robustness, and the modularity of most systems make their use successful in laboratories of various sizes and types, no matter what matrices are. The possibility of performing rapid analyses is especially important in food-feed control under European guidelines (e.g. Commission Directive 2006/13/EC, Commission Regulation (EC) No 152/2009, Commission Regulation (EC) No 199/2006).