Jo Marie Cook Secretary,
AOAC Committee G
3125 Conner Blvd. Lab #3
Tallahassee, FL 32309
cookj@doacs.state.fl.us

To: Mr. Robert Koeritzer, President, AOAC Board of Directors

From: Jo Marie Cook, Secretary, Committee G and Florida Department of Agriculture

Stephen Capar, Chair, Committee G and the Food and Drug Administration

Heidi Hickes, member, Committee G and Montana Department of Agriculture

Jim Bell, member, Committee G and Director of Laboratory Operations,

Food Safety Net Services

Ed Baratta, General Referee, Committee G and Alpha Standard Methods

David Soderberg, General Referee, Committee G and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mary Carson, Chair, AOAC Committee B and the Food and Drug Administration

Gary Lombaert, Manager, Health Products and Food, Health Canada

Eric Verdon, Manager, AFSSA-LERMVD, Foirgeres - France

Re: AOAC Community on Chemical Contaminants & Residues in Food

At the upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors on December 11-12, 2006, the members of Committee G, as well as a cross section of other AOAC members, would like to request that the Board of Directors establish a new group which will represent the community of stakeholders interested in analysis of chemical contaminants and residues in foods. (Only a few of the interested persons are named here.) The function of the group is to engage and represent the community of all stakeholders involved with or affected by, the analysis of chemical contaminants and residues in food from international, federal, and state governments, academia, industry, business, and trade associations. Suggested Terms of Reference for the AOAC Community on Chemical Contaminants & Residues in Food are attached.

At the 2006 annual meeting of AOAC International, Stephen Capar and I discussed this idea with the Board of Directors. As mentioned at the Board of Director's meeting, this is not intended to be a task force with a very specific agenda. For that reason, we are suggesting establishment of an AOAC community which will serve as representatives of a greater "community" of stakeholders interested in the analysis of trace level chemicals in foods.

The need for a group to address method prioritization and method needs for the trace level analysis of foods has also been presented to the Official Methods Board. We have tried to address any concerns of other committee members in our terms of reference. The establishment of the Community does not prohibit any committee from developing their own community outreach. The establishment of the Community does not eliminate the need for any committee or their work. It is our hope that the work of the Community will provide a forum for new ideas, a source of new methods and process for reaching broad consensus on new methods offered for collaborative study. This Community could be an essential resource for all the food related committees.

At our recent AOAC International Meeting, I heard from several other scientists that there was a need for analyses in honey. However, there was no clear way for those persons interested in honey analysis to gather together and develop concrete proposals for new methods. I need these new methods in my work and felt a loss at not being able to bring these parties together. If established, my hope is that a primary role of the Community will be to provide such a forum for new needs to be addressed.

cc: J. Bradford, AOAC Executive Director

Norma Hill, Vice Chair, AOAC Official Methods Board