Hydrocyanic acid is known to be a highly toxic substance. While the substance itself is not present in toxicologically relevant quantities in food, it does get released in the human body when food containing cyanogenic glycosides bound to hydrocyanic acid is ingested and subsequently comes into contact with hydrolytic enzymes.

With the Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1364 of 4 August 2022 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006, the European Union has set new maximum levels for hydrocyanic acid bound in cyanogenic glycosides, which came into force on 1 January 2023. The foodstuffs that are affected by this regulation include almonds, linseed, apricot kernels and cassava.

GALAB is one of the few laboratories in Germany that can offer the analysis for hydrocyanic acid bound in cyanogenic glycosides “in-house” – meaning in our laboratory building located in Hamburg. While many other laboratories offer the analysis of hydrocyanic acid, the samples for the actual analysis are often sent to third-party laboratories. This is not the case at GALAB – every analysis for hydrocyanic acid is carried out by GALAB itself from a single source.