Repercussions from the Gulf oil spill will undoubtedly require increased testing to determine the extent of contamination. In response, AOAC INTERNATIONAL is bringing key stakeholders together on June 29, 2010, to establish a consensus-based fitness-for-purpose statement with the ultimate goal of translating it into standard method performance requirements (SMPRs) against which existing or new methods can be tested and validated in an expedited study. In doing so, stakeholders from government, state departments of agriculture and chemistry laboratories, the fishing and seafood industries, and analytical technology providers will identify method needs, analytes, matrixes, analytical ranges, etc. for determination of chemical compounds in seafood resulting from the Gulf oil spill.

“The Gulf fishing industry needs good, fast, high-throughput, analytical tests to help ensure seafood safety, reopen fisheries, and recoup losses,” said AOAC Executive Director James Bradford. “To do so, we’re bringing all the right players to the table to develop faster ways of detecting chemical contaminants in seafood.”

To date, AOAC has invited state departments of agriculture from the Gulf Coast, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Food Emergency Response Network, Southern Shrimp Alliance, Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, and Science magazine. The project is currently supported by Bruker, PerkinElmer, Pace Analytical Services, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Covance Laboratories, Microbac Laboratories, Eurofins, Silliker Inc., Dionex Corp., and Restek.

Due to the urgent need for rugged, reliable methods, AOAC has proposed an expedited validation process that, ultimately, would lead to an optimized method ready for single-laboratory validation and/or collaborative study. Established through voluntary stakeholder consensus, a fitness-for-purpose statement ensures that a method is appropriate for its intended use and identifies analytical needs. An expert review panel will be convened to evaluate available methodology purported to meet fitness for purpose and the best method(s) will be recommended for further study. Simultaneously, working groups can continue with the standard process and develop SMPRs, which like fitness-for-purpose statements, represent what is expected of a method but are more specific, detailed analytical requirements (such as sensitivity, specificity, analytical range, limit of detection, etc.).

“In most cases, AOAC will use its standard, rigorous validation process,” said Scott Coates, chief scientific officer. “However, with an emergency situation like the Gulf oil spill where the need is urgent and greatly impacts the community, we must be able to respond faster.”

The Stakeholder Panel on Seafood Contaminants, chaired by Doug Hite of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, will be held on June 29, 2010, at AOAC Headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. Full coverage is scheduled for the July/August 2010 issue of Inside Laboratory Management.

For more information, contact Dawn Frazier, senior director, membership and education, at dfrazier@aoac.org.

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