With no activity in the Peer-Verified Methods^SM (PVM) program for the past 5 years and no prospect of AOAC issuing any new PVMs in the foreseeable future, the AOAC Board of Directors on July 11 voted unanimously to disband the methods program. New initiatives are being explored by the Association to replace the program.

PVMs were originally designed to provide independent laboratory validation for nonproprietary methods where rapid validation and some degree of confidence in performance were needed. The validation procedures were intended to require fewer resources than a full collaborative study.

The PVM program and its relevance have faded much over the years, and a recommendation that the program be disbanded had previously come to the BOD by the Official Methods Board (OMB) last May. Single-laboratory validation (SLV), with an added single-blind sample study by an independent laboratory, could probably replace PVM-type studies.

With the start-up of the program, PVMs were only available individually from AOAC. Beginning in 1995, however, all approved PVMs were published in the Journal of AOAC INTERNATIONAL. Since the program’s inception in 1993, 21 approved PVMs were issued. The PVMs covered many subjects including determination of niacin in infant formula by solid-phase extraction and anion-exchange liquid chromatography to rapid determination of moisture and fat in meats by microwave and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis.

A list of approved PVMs is published on the AOAC Web site http://www.aoac.org/vmeth/peerverimtd[1].htm, and copies of PVMs will continue to be available on request, for a fee.

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