This European Standard specifies a method for the determination of benzene in soft drinks, other beverages and vegetable-based infant foods, by headspace gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS). The method has been validated in an interlaboratory study via the analysis of spiked samples of carbonated soft drink, still fruit-based drink, carbonated fruit-based drink, vegetable and fruit juice containing carrot, infant food vegetable based and infant food containing meat, ranging from 1,9 µg/kg to 18,6 µg/kg. However, linearity of the instrument response was proven for the concentration range from 0,5 µg/kg to 20 µg/kg. The limit of quantification (LOQ) depends on the instrument but can generally be expected to be in the range from 0,5 µg/kg to 1,0 µg/kg.