This document specifies the detection of Clostridium (C.) perfringens.

This document is applicable to:

—     products intended for human consumption;

—     products intended for animal feeding;

—     environmental samples in the area of food and feed production and handling;

—     samples from the primary production stage.

This horizontal method was originally developed for the examination of all samples belonging to the food chain. Based on the information available at the time of publication of this document, this method is considered to be fully suited to the examination of all samples belonging to the food chain. However, because of the large variety of products in the food chain, it is possible that this horizontal method is not appropriate in every detail for all products. Nevertheless, it is expected that the required modifications are minimized so that they do not result in a significant deviation from this horizontal method.

NOTE          Interlaboratory studies with a small number of participating laboratories (<10) were conducted for the following food categories:

—      ready-to-eat, ready-to-reheat meat products;

—      eggs and egg products (derivates);

—      ready-to-eat, ready-to-reheat fishery products;

—      processed fruits and vegetables;

—      infant formula and infant cereals (with probiotics);

—      multi-component foods or meal components.

It has also been validated with a small number of participating laboratories for the following other category:

—      environmental samples (food or feed production).

Since the method is not commonly used for samples in the primary production stage, this category was not included in the interlaboratory study. Therefore, no performance characteristics were obtained for this category. The method has not been validated for the category ‘pet food and animal feed’, as the test samples used for the interlaboratory study were already naturally contaminated with C. perfringens. Given the limited number of participating laboratories in the interlaboratory studies, the calculated performance characteristics can be used as indicative values of the method performance. For detailed information on the validation, see Clause 11 and Annexes C to F.