With the changes in agricultural, industrial, economic, demographic, social and political matters related to what was once called ‘the residue problem’, on the one hand, and analytical technical advances, on the other hand, the contents of this EuroResidue conference reflected the worldwide interest in this type of food contaminants, as it has done in the past.
Speaking of ‘worldwide’ and ‘the past’: globalisation of the trade of animals and food products was the major influencer of the international interest in the subject. A short summary of the evolving residue sciences is given here below.
In 1990, EuroResidue I started with the ‘dawning’ of legislation on food contaminants, i.e., residues of veterinary pharmaceuticals. There was a clear and loud demand from government and public to regulate the toxic risks from food. It was commented that much work had already been done, but that still lots had to be fixed. Emphasis was on the toxicology and pharmacodynamics of various compounds.
The EuroResidue II (1993) marked the continuous development of analytical techniques, which made further conferences ‘desirable’. It was concluded, then, that more attention had to be paid to … LC-MS.
In the 1996 EuroResidue edition, a broader scope than merely the presentation of analytical methods to detect residues of predominantly ‘hormones and growth promoters’ was sought. There was a clear and obvious call for more information on quality assurance and residue inspection systems.
Attention was being paid to ‘large scale screening of samples and advanced detection systems based on molecular spectrometry’ in the year 2000 edition (EuroResidue V). It was hypothesised that the sensitivity of analytical methods was doubling every five years. Consequently, some asked: do we need this ever-improving sensitivity? What is the relationship between detecting the last attomole and public health?
In 2004, it was concluded that everything was in place to guarantee food safety. A network of regulatory residue laboratories and community reference laboratories (CRLs) was accomplished and ISO-17025 has been mandatory since 2002. In addition, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Codex Alimentarius were greatly adopting the European Union system. The zero-tolerance substances remained a problem, though, and there were worries about the use of minimum required performance levels (MRPLs) as ‘surrogate’ MRLs. The influence of global trade on ‘the residue problem’ became more apparent and important.
With EuroResidue VI (2008) it was noted that the number of symposia in the field was increasing despite the availability of modern information and communication technology. Prominent items were risk-based monitoring and the problem of handling increasing numbers of data points with even shorter acquisition times. Remarkably, it was concluded that public opinion had settled and the problem of the residues had faded from the attention of ‘general politicians’. Residue problems had become incidents instead of big scandals.
It was with EuroResidue VII (2012) that the ‘-omics’ technologies received increasingly more attention and high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HRMS) was announced as the direction to take if one want to perform modern instrumental residue analysis. Otherwise, the conference was largely on the improvement of existing methods and care for a sound validation result. Although a longer considered problem, endogenous versus exogenous was discussed more intensively.
Then there was EuroResidue VIII (2016) the interest in methods for detecting (multiple) antibiotics (simultaneously) had exploded. Almost all the contributions on this topic refer to the development of bacterial resistance against antimicrobials and the steps taken to manage this problem as a motivation for the work.
At his point in time we are at the eve of the introduction of new European Union legislation, both for the control systems for the food and feed chain, as well as for the analytical methods used for enforcement. This new legislation will reflect the numerous studies on residues and analytical methods presented at the EuroResidue conferences. At the same time, it will be a new impulse for research organisations involved in the development of new approaches for the sustainable production of authentic, safe and nutritious food. Future research will be performed in multidisciplinary networks, based on the ‘Global One-health Approach’, integrating agricultural, veterinary and public health sciences. We have no doubt that these developments will become visible during future EuroResidue conferences.