What AOAC Can Do

If you want a level competitive market, you need validated methods.

Validated, standardized methods used throughout the Dietary Supplements industry provide many benefits to labs, regulators, and consumers.

When everyone uses the same methods, all labels contain equivalent information. Consumers compare apples to apples.
Good methods lead to confidence in purity and freedom from contaminants.
Active ingredients, in raw materials and in various forms of the finished product, are stated in honest units of measurement that can be compared from product to product. No one can make misleading claims for inferior products.
When the US FDA begins to regulate dietary supplements, labs with validated methods will be ready to comply.

AOAC publishes validated methods for all members to use freely. The methods, however, come from the community—from labs like yours. AOAC provides validation services that lead to the published methods.

Where do methods come from?

Members of the community—those who must certify products, create the product labels, or regulate the products—generally develop methods that work well in their own labs. AOACI validation carries the process one more step—they perform a rigorous test to see that the methods are rugged and reliable enough to perform well in any qualified laboratory.

Community task forces meet periodically to decide which methods are the most pressing needs. They locate methods, usually from their own labs, and recommend to AOAC that they be validated. AOAC undertakes the validation of these Task Force methods without charge to the labs. The validation procedure

How Do I Get the Methods?

Once there are validated methods, AOACI makes them available for everyone who needs them. The trick is to develop methods, refine them, validate them for use in qualified laboraties, and publish them. No one can do that alone. AOACI has the expertise for validating and publishing methods, and you have laboratories and samples. Together, we can do the whole job. AOACI needs YOU as much as YOU need AOACI. Together, we can do everything; separately, we are paralyzed.

Who Pays for the Methods?

AOAC also offers validation services to manufacturers of test kits and others who want their proprietary (commercial) methods recognized as valid methods for purchasers of their kits or equipment. These manufacturers pay fees for the validation. AOAC also receives grants for locating and validating methods for the Department of Homeland Security and, for dietary supplements, the National Institutes of Health. These help subsidize methods validated for the community.