| Home |
AOAC facilitated a successful three-day regional stakeholders meeting in New Delhi, India on February 13-15, 2012, engaging scientific experts from the Indian analytical community to collaborate and develop standards for choline and vitamin C in infant formula and adult/pediatric nutritional formula. Working groups developed draft standard method performance requirements (SMPRs) and recommended potential candidate methods. Engagement of international experts is key to global acceptance of standards. “Holding a regional meeting in India helps increase awareness of this important initiative, as well as representation from international experts,” said Anita Mishra, executive, scientific business development at AOAC INTERNATIONAL. “The goal is global acceptance of standards, adopted by, for example, ISO, Codex, and other standards-setting organizations.” Working groups for vitamin C, chaired by Jayashree Arcot (University of New South Wales) and Lalitha Gowda (Central Food Technological Research Institute), and choline, chaired by Sneh Bhandari (Silliker) and Rajesh Girdhar (Abbott Nutrition), recommended that methods should be applicable to vitamin C and total choline in all forms of infant, adult, or pediatric formula (powders, ready-to-feed liquids, and liquid concentrates). Vitamin C is defined as the sum of L-ascorbic acid or its salts and dehydroascorbic acid. Choline is defined as free and bound forms. Bound forms include choline esters, phosphocholine, sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, and glycerophosphocholine. Choline is reported as choline hydroxide. Draft SMPRs for vitamin C and choline will be made available on the AOAC website for public comment. In addition, AOAC will issue a call for additional candidate methods for these nutrients. Draft SMPRs will be reviewed and, if successful, approved at the next Stakeholder Panel on Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals (SPIFAN) meeting during the 126th AOAC Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Once approved by SPIFAN, chaired by Darryl Sullivan of Covance Laboratories, SMPRs will be used by AOAC expert review panels (ERPs) to evaluate the most promising candidate methods. Methods meeting SMPRs will be considered for possible First Action status by the ERPs. AOAC anticipates that additional regional stakeholders meetings will be planned in the future, with potential meetings in China and Latin America.
|
