Sampling for grain quality
Martien C Spanjer
VWA - Food and Consumer Product
Safety Authority, NRL for Mycotoxins and Pesticides in Food, Hoogte Kadijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose of review: This review focuses on the
state-of-the-art of sampling grain for quality control of contaminants and
recent developments in measurement uncertainty related to sampling and
sample preparation.
Findings: Recently, an update has been published on
European Commission directives regarding sampling that contains all
contaminants of interest. Some relevant literature was published in the
last few years, which provided some additional data on the subject. It
showed that the leading principle for sampling should be what parameter has
to be determined in what commodity. This leads to the conclusion that when
a lot can only be sampled once, the most extended sampling scheme has to be
applied. Recently, interest has arisen on uncertainties of the sampling
process, for which Eurachem developed a guidance
document. Gy’s sampling theory is included in its
draft versions.
Directions for future research: Not all relevant data are
available yet for all contaminant-commodity combinations, so ongoing
research is needed. The latest development is to apply sampling uncertainty
to the final report on a lot, which enlarges the need for missing data with
respect to sampling experiments.
Keywords: sampling; grain; cereals; mycotoxins; OTA;
DON; variability; uncertainty
Stewart Postharvest Review 2007,
6:12
Published online 01 December
2007
doi: 10.2212/spr.2007.6.12
