In France, foodstuffs are regularly monitored in order to track contamination levels in French and imported products. This monitoring makes it possible to study trends and ensures that the maximum limits defined in the regulations are not exceeded. This article deals with the surveillance system managed by the Directorate General for Food (DGAL) in 2014 concerning persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

(dioxins and PCBs, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)) in foodstuffs of animal origin. A comparison with data from 2013 is also proposed.

In 2014, various programmes were implemented to monitor levels of POPs in animal foodstuffs (mainly set by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006), for a total of 4,932 samples taken, the vast majority of which involved DL-PCBs (1,954 samples) and NDL-PCBs (2,666 samples). This number of samples was higher than in 2013 (2,697 samples), but for these two years, conclusions were similar:

observed contamination levels were low and the maximum limits were seldom exceeded (at a rate of less than 1%). Exceeded limits involved only dioxins and PCBs (DL and NDL) in fish meat. The alert  thresholds (defined at national level) were also exceeded for the same compounds in game meat.

However, the conclusion should be confirmed in light of future sampling, due to small sample numbers and/or changes in the sampled matrices (foodstuffs of different natures, with different places of origin, etc. from one year to another).