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European method to determine iodine content in animal feed

Food, fish and agriculture Food safety Health and diseases

New method has been developed to ensure that iodine content in animal feed stays below the European maximum levels limits set to protect both animals and consumers.

Just as human beings need iodine for their brains to develop normally and their metabolism to function properly, iodine is necessary in small amounts to maintain animal health. However, if the animal feed for food-producing animals contains too much iodine, it may have adverse health effects - for animals as well as consumers of animal products such as milk, meat and eggs.

Therefore, methods of analysis are needed to be able to check whether the iodine content in animal feed is below the European maximum levels, which have been set to protect both animals and consumers of animal products.

Future-proof method of analysis

In a project under the European Committee for Standardization, CEN, a group of researchers from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, has developed a method of analysis for the determination of iodine in animal feed.

The method is as user-friendly as possible, and it utilizes a general extraction method, which is applicable for various types of feed materials and compound feed. It can also measure iodine at lower values than the current maximum levels allow in case these are changed in the future.

The method has been tested and validated by 14 European feed analysis laboratories from seven different countries and has now been approved as the European standard for analyzing iodine in feed.

Read more

The new CEN standard (EN17050:2017) can be purchased in Dansk Standard’s webshop. Read about CEN’s work to develop standardized methods of analysis on the organisation’s website.

The European maximum levels for iodine in animal feed are outlined in the EU Commission’s Regulation (EU) 2015/861 (pdf).