Limits of Food Authentication: A Separation Science Approach to Maximum Tolerable Levels

Nicolai Zederkopff Ballin from the Danish Veterinary and Food Authority examines chromatography’s role in helping to implement the maximum tolerable level (MTL) framework for food adulteration and translating analytical results into compliance decisions. Rather than measuring adulterants directly, chromatographic methods typically quantify secondary markers—such as 16-O-methylcafestol for Robusta-in-Arabica coffee fraud or species-specific peptides for meat substitution—which are then converted into an estimated content of the non-authentic component and compared against the MTL.