Veterinary drug residues in food: methods validated under Decision 2002/657/EC may be used until 31 December 2027 instead of 10 June 2026 — Regulation (EU) 2026/731
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/731, published on 30 March 2026, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/808 on analytical methods for residues of pharmacologically active substances in food of animal origin. It extends the transitional period for methods validated under the old rules and clarifies the sampling of feed and of ostrich eggs.
- Regulation 2021/808 requires methods used in official residue controls to meet the performance criteria of Chapter 1 of its Annex I and to be validated according to Chapters 2 and 4 — with a decision limit for confirmation (CCα) and a detection capability for screening (CCβ). For methods validated before it entered into force, points 2 and 3 of Annex I to repealed Decision 2002/657/EC continued to apply — until 10 June 2026.
- The Commission moved that date to 31 December 2027. The reasoning in recital 4: according to Member States’ progress reports, many national reference laboratories and official control laboratories will not complete the revalidation of all methods for all matrices by June 2026, despite the efforts of the past four years.
- New wording of Article 6: feed samples taken under national control plans for pharmacologically active substances are taken according to Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 152/2009, and points 5–7 of Annex II to Regulation 2021/808 apply to reporting on sampling, transport and storage — because the feed regulation contains no such requirements.
- In Annex II, on the number of samples, it is added that an ostrich egg sample is one egg, whereas for other eggs the minimum is 12 eggs depending on the method; according to recital 5 an ostrich egg weighs 1–1.5 kg, as much as 24 hen eggs. Where several categories of substances are analysed in one sample by different methods, the sample size must be increased accordingly.