prEN 18218-1
(Main)Food authenticity - Non-targeted testing methods - Part 1: General considerations and definitions
Food authenticity - Non-targeted testing methods - Part 1: General considerations and definitions
This document provides a common language covering NTTM in food authentication. It provides:
- definitions of terms involved in the development and validation of NTTM;
- a general structure and guidelines for development of NTTM;
- general considerations for the validation of NTTM.
NOTE “Food and feed” is implied whenever the term “food” is used in this document.
Lebensmittelauthentizität - Nicht-zielgerichtete Prüfverfahren - Teil 1: Allgemeines und Begriffe
Dieses Dokument enthält einen gebräuchlichen Wortschatz, der nicht-zielgerichtete Verfahren bei der Lebensmittelauthentifizierung betrifft. Es enthält
- Definitionen von Begriffen, die bei der Entwicklung und Validierung von nicht-zielgerichteten Verfahren von Bedeutung sind;
- eine allgemeine Struktur und Leitlinien zur Entwicklung von nicht-zielgerichteten Verfahren:
- allgemeine Erwägungen zur Validierung von nicht-zielgerichteten Verfahren.
ANMERKUNG Der Begriff „Lebensmittel“ in diesem Dokument schließt „Lebensmittel- und Futtermittel“ ein.
Authenticité des aliments - Méthodes d’essai non ciblées - Partie 1 : Généralités et définitions
Le présent document procure une terminologie commune couvrant les MENC rencontrées dans l’authentification des aliments. Il fournit :
- la définition des termes rencontrés lors du développement et de la validation des MENC ;
- une structure générale et des lignes directrices pour le développement des MENC ;
- des considérations générales concernant la validation des MENC.
NOTE Dans le présent document, chaque occurrence du terme « aliment » fait référence à « aliment destiné à la consommation humaine et animale ».
Pristnost živil – Netarčne metode preskušanja – 1. del: Splošne ugotovitve in definicije
General Information
Standards Content (Sample)
SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-september-2025
Pristnost živil – Netarčne metode preskušanja – 1. del: Splošne ugotovitve in
definicije
Food authenticity - Non-targeted testing methods - Part 1: General considerations and
definitions
Lebensmittelauthentizität - Nicht-zielgerichtete Prüfverfahren - Teil 1: Allgemeines und
Begriffe
Authenticité des aliments - Méthodes d’essai non ciblées - Partie 1 : Généralités et
définitions
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: prEN 18218-1
ICS:
01.040.67 Živilska tehnologija (Slovarji) Food technology
(Vocabularies)
67.020 Procesi v živilski industriji Processes in the food
industry
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
DRAFT
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
July 2025
ICS
English Version
Food authenticity - Non-targeted testing methods - Part 1:
General considerations and definitions
Authenticité des aliments - Validation des méthodes Lebensmittelauthentizität - Validierung von nicht-
d'essai non ciblées dans l'authenticité des aliments et zielgerichteten Prüfverfahren für die Authentizität von
des aliments pour animaux - Partie 1 : Considérations Lebens- und Futtermitteln - Teil 1: Allgemeines und
générales et définitions Begriffe
This draft European Standard is submitted to CEN members for enquiry. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee
CEN/TC 460.
If this draft becomes a European Standard, CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations
which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.
This draft European Standard was established by CEN in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other
language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are
aware and to provide supporting documentation.
Warning : This document is not a European Standard. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change without
notice and shall not be referred to as a European Standard.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2025 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. prEN 18218-1:2025 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.
Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 5
3.1 General terms . 5
3.2 Samples . 7
3.3 Analysis and analytical quality . 8
3.4 Data processing . 10
3.5 List of abbreviations . 12
4 General considerations on non-targeted testing methods . 13
5 Development of a NTTM . 14
5.1 Scope and method performance criteria . 14
5.2 Sampling and reference sample sets . 14
5.3 Measurement methods and analytical features . 15
5.4 Data analytics and statistical model . 15
5.5 Method performance . 16
6 Validation of a non-targeted testing method . 18
6.1 General. 18
6.2 Validation plan and performance characteristics . 18
6.3 Validation samples . 18
6.4 Performance evaluation . 18
6.5 Validation study designs . 19
7 Routine use, quality control and long-term maintenance . 19
7.1 Introduce NTTM into routine use . 19
7.2 Internal quality control . 19
7.3 Conformance probability of samples . 19
7.4 Long-term maintenance . 20
7.4.1 Modification of the validated method . 20
7.4.2 Data maintenance . 20
Bibliography . 21
European foreword
This document (prEN 18218-1:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 460 “Food
authenticity”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.
This document is currently submitted to the CEN Enquiry.
Introduction
Food and feed authentication aims at verifying whether a proposed product claim matches with the
expected product characteristics. Traditionally, the majority of analytical methods for food
authentication are based on targeted approaches. However, non-targeted testing methods (NTTM) could
provide a more cost-effective approach for authentication of food and feed in the increasingly complex
international supply chain. Product characteristics of interest are for instance:
— the geographical origin of a product (e.g. a declared country of origin or a region indicated by
“Protected Designation of Origin” or “Protected Geographical Indication” food labels);
— the biological origin (e.g. a declared species or variety);
— the production mode (e.g. produced under organic conditions);
— the absence of adulterants.
A targeted method aims for specific parameters, compounds or markers in a food product. A NTTM
provides a broad subset of chemical/physical features of the product and can detect expected and
unexpected alterations in a food product. The product characteristics often cannot be directly measured,
but they can be modelled and predicted from measurable analytical features using classification methods.
A NTTM used for authenticating food analyses a food product bearing a specific claim, and can be used to
compare the data with those of known authentic materials. The outcome allows to verify whether the
characteristics of the food product and the claim match. Research on NTTM has mainly been driven by
the following factors:
— food product claims have become more complex by declaring, e.g. variety, breed, production and food
transformation processes. Examples of such claims are the “Protected Designation of Origin” and
“Protected Geographical Indication” food labels;
— more food inspections are wanted by stakeholders such as government agencies, policy makers,
control laboratories, producers, industry and consumers in order to provide evidence about the
quality, authenticity and integrity on the large volume of food traded globally.
Until now, no European standard is available for the validation of NTTM in food authenticity. Not having
widely accepted guidelines complicates the acceptability of results of NTTM used in the analysis of food
authenticity. Such methods are regarded as a useful complement to other risk-based food controls to
detect fraudulent and deceptive practices.
1 Scope
This document provides a common language covering NTTM in food authentication. It provides:
— definitions of terms involved in the development and validation of NTTM;
— a general structure and guidelines for development of NTTM;
— general considerations for the validation of NTTM.
NOTE “Food and feed” is implied whenever the term “food” is used in this document.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
EN 17972:2024, Food authenticity — Food authenticity and fraud — Concepts, terms, and definitions
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in EN 17972 and the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1 General terms
3.1.1
adulterant
material used to adulterate food
3.1.2
adulteration
intentionally adding an undeclared ingredient to the food product, or substituting a declared ingredient
with another ingredient, or increasing the volume of a liquid product by dilution
Note 1 to entry: In practice, there might not be a clear difference between dilution, addition, and substitution,
and it might be difficult to distinguish between them.
[SOURCE: EN 17972:2024, 3.20]
3.1.3
analytical features
collection of observations from analysed samples
Note 1 to entry: Analytical features (3.1.3) can include, but are not limited to, quantities of discrete
elements/molecules/marker compounds or electronic records of analytical measurement techniques (3.3.1) such as
spectra, sequences, or chromatograms.
Note 2 to entry: The features resulting from the measurement procedure (3.3.7), independent of its measurement
principle (3.3.6) or analytical measurement technique (3.3.1), can typically not be directly mapped to any
characteristic of the food, such as species, origin (e.g. country, region), agronomical practices (e.g. organic vs.
conventional), production/processing system, or purity.
3.1.4
authentic
state where there is a match between the product characteristic (3.1.7) and the corresponding claims
[SOURCE: EN 17972:2024, 3.5, modified — definition rephrased]
3.1.5
authentication
process of verifying the authenticity (3.1.6) of the food product
[SOURCE: EN 17972:2024, 3.7]
3.1.6
authenticity
quality of being authentic (3.1.4)
[SOURCE: EN 17972:2024, 3.6]
3.1.7
characteristic
distinguishing feature of the product
Note 1 to entry: A product characteristic can be qualitative or quantitative.
Note 2 to entry: A product characteristic can be inherent in the product itself, or it can relate to the conditions
under which the product was produced, or the environment it was produced in.
Note 3 to entry: A product characteristic is sometimes referred to as a product attribute or a product property.
[SOURCE: EN 17972:2024, 3.3, modified — notes to entry removed]
3.1.8
non-targeted testing method
NTTM
set of procedures involving a measurement procedure (3.3.7) yielding several analytical features (3.1.3)
which are contextualized using data analytics (3.4.4), including a reference data set (3.2.3), in order to
ascertain the authenticity (3.1.6) of a claimed char
...
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