National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 18179:2026.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee AW/34/46, Food Authenticity.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 September 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 26 July 2026.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 18179:2026) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 460 “Food Authenticity”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by March 2027, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by March 2027.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

The EC poultry meat marketing standards Regulation (Commission Regulation (EC) No 543/2008[1]) requires that poultrymeat (whole birds and portions) be labelled according to the storage conditions employed (fresh, frozen, or rapidly frozen) and defines the temperature conditions associated with each category. However, refrigeration technologies are now available that do not comply with the conditions specified in the Regulation and can result in the mislabelling of poultry meat. There is therefore a need for a robust analytical method capable of distinguishing between fresh and previously frozen poultry to support enforcement of the relevant regulatory legislation.

1 Scope

This document specifies a procedure for determining hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase (HADH) activity in poultry meat samples by spectrophotometry. The results provide an indication of whether poultry breast meat has been previously frozen, based on the ratio of relative HADH activity, and can be used to verify the labelling of poultry breast meat sold as chilled poultry.

This document is applicable specifically to chicken breast meat. It is not applicable to other cuts and/or types of meat unless these have been validated and appropriate limits have been established.

When following the procedure outlined in this document, for a single sample pressing results in 96,6 % of samples being correctly classified. If a correct classification rate of 99,9 % is required, three sample pressings are necessary; i.e. three chicken breasts (one pressing from each), selected randomly from a batch.

This document is not applicable to minced meat or to poultry preparations.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Symbols and abbreviations

5 Principle

6 Reagents

6.1

6.2

6.3

6.4

6.5

6.6

6.7

6.8 Preparation of chicken breast meat calibration standards

7 Apparatus

7.1 Meat press

7.2

7.3

7.4

7.5

7.6

7.7

7.8

7.9

7.10

7.11

7.12

7.13

7.14

7.15

7.16

8 Procedure

8.1 General

8.2 Sub-sampling

8.3 Sample pressing

8.4 Spectrophotometric determination of enzyme activity

9 Calculations

9.1 Calculation of rate of decrease in absorbance

9.2 Calculation of the HADH activity

9.3 Calculation of the enzyme activity ratio

10 Precision

10.1 Interlaboratory study

10.2 Repeatability

10.3 Reproducibility

10.4 Estimates of mean, and repeatability and reproducibility standard deviations

11 Test report

Bibliography