SIST EN ISO 18363-2:2025 PDF

Overview

EN ISO 18363-2:2025 specifies a harmonized analytical procedure for the parallel determination of 2‑MCPD, 3‑MCPD and glycidol in animal and vegetable fats and oils using GC/MS. Part 2 of the ISO 18363 series describes a method based on slow alkaline transesterification (alkaline‑catalysed ester cleavage), conversion of released glycidol into monobromopropanediol (MBPD), and derivatisation with phenylboronic acid (PBA) prior to gas‑chromatography/mass‑spectrometry analysis. The standard (adopted by CEN, January 2025) supersedes the 2018 edition.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Analytes covered: Bound and free forms of 2‑MCPD, 3‑MCPD and glycidol; results report the sum of free + bound for each analyte.
• Analytical principle: Slow alkaline transesterification to cleave ester bonds, transformation of glycidol to MBPD, followed by PBA derivatisation of free diols and GC/MS detection.
• Main procedural stages: spiking with surrogate/internal standard, ester cleavage & glycidol transformation, matrix removal, derivatisation, GC/MS measurement and data evaluation.
• Performance and quality: The standard includes requirements for expression of results, determination of degree of diester cleavage, and quality‑control measures. Annexes provide example chromatograms and interlaboratory test results to support method validation and data interpretation.
• Scope limits: Applicable to solid and liquid fats and oils; can be used for animal fats and used frying oils after a validation study for those matrices. Milk and milk products (and milk fat) are explicitly excluded.
• Regulatory context: A CEN‑adopted ISO standard intended for laboratories and regulatory bodies seeking standardized, comparable MCPD/glycidol results.

Applications and users

This standard is directly useful for:

• Food and feed testing laboratories performing routine or regulatory monitoring of MCPD and glycidol in edible oils and fats.
• Quality‑control teams in edible‑oil processing, refining and frying‑oil management seeking to assess process‑related contaminants.
• Regulatory authorities, enforcement laboratories and accreditation bodies requiring a validated, harmonized GC/MS method.
• Research groups studying formation pathways, mitigation or fate of MCPDs and glycidol in food matrices.

Related standards

• ISO 18363 series (other parts describe alternative methods, differential approaches and guidance).
• National or regional methods that reference ISO 18363‑2 for compliance testing.

Keywords: EN ISO 18363-2:2025, MCPD, 2‑MCPD, 3‑MCPD, glycidol, MBPD, GC/MS, slow alkaline transesterification, phenylboronic acid, edible oils, analytical method, food safety.