iBET and LECO Europe Host Specialized Workshop on Food Safety of Mineral Oil Hydrocarbons
Regulatory and Analytical Challenges in the Detection of MOSH (Mineral Oil Saturated Hydrocarbons) and MOAH (Mineral Oil Aromatic Hydrocarbons)
On March 5, iBET’s Sustainability for Food & Health Division and LECO Europe hosted a specialized workshop dedicated to the presence of mineral oil hydrocarbons in food matrices, a pressing topic in food safety today.
The event welcomed around 50 participants, including representatives from the national agri-food industry (among them several of iBET’s Associate Members), scientists, and analytical specialists.
Attendees explored various dimensions of the MOSH/MOAH contamination issue, including legislation, toxicity, mitigation procedures, and different analytical solutions.
The workshop opened with remarks from Prof. Paula Alves, iBET’s CEO, who gave a brief overview of the Institute. This was followed by a talk from Isabel Cardoso (Coordinator of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs at FIPA – Federação das Indústrias Portuguesas Agroalimentares), outlining the regulatory shifts at the EU/national levels regarding mineral oil hydrocarbon contamination.
iBET’s scientific contribution was delivered by Prof. Maria do Rosário Bronze (Senior Scientific Advisor at the Natural Bioactives & Nutraceuticals Area at iBET), who presented the current state of MOSH/MOAH analytical methodologies, and highlighted ongoing work at iBET.
Prof. Maria do Rosário Bronze presenting current state-of-the-art of MOSH/MOAH analysis and ongoing work in this topic at iBET.
The program continued with talks on sample preparation workflows, the analytical limitations of the reference method LC-GC-FID, and the advantages of next-generation instrumentation (e.g.: LC-GCxGC-TOFMS) by LECO representatives.
The event concluded with an intervention by Eng. Ana Paula Bico (Nutrition and Food Services Directorate at DGAV – Direção-Geral da Alimentação e Veterinária), who urged joint efforts across the agri-food sector to address this issue effectively.
Overall, the workshop highlighted the critical importance of collaboration among research institutes, industry stakeholders, and technology providers in addressing emerging food safety challenges.
