Below are the titles of the 2026 Annual Meeting Accepted Symposia. Click on the titles for the full descriptions.
- From Packaging to Product: Following PFAS through Food Production Pathways
- NMR Advancements in the Dietary Supplement Industry
- Developing and Refining Methodologies to Test and Regulate Innovative Agricultural Nutrient Inputs Impacting Tomorrow’s Plants, Soils and Food Supply
- AOAC Statistics through Time: Building the Next Generation of Validation Tools
- Developing and Refining Methodologies to Test and Regulate Innovative Agricultural Inputs: Biostimulants and Beneficial Substances Impacting Tomorrow’s Plants and Foods
- A Microbiologist’s Guide to Method Verification: Ensuring Accuracy and Confidence in Food Safety Testing
- Chemometrics and Big Data for Advanced Characterization of Nutrition and Food Products
- Advancements in PFAS Measurements and Reference Materials
- Untangling the Matrix: Modern Methods for Today’s Superfood and Multi Ingredient Formulations
- Next Generation Fiber Testing for Gut Health Products
- Next-Generation AI-Enhanced Rapid Screening for Food Authenticity and Fraud Detection
- Bridging the Analytical Gap: Advanced Methods for the Identification and Quantification of Actives in the Evolving Functional Mushroom Market
- Color Additives from Natural Sources Done Right: The Quality and Safety Imperative
- Metals in Consumer Products: Ubiquity, Speciation, and Implications for Safety
- Advances in Analytical Science for the Identification of Proteins Used in Food and Dietary Supplements
- To Validate or Not to Validate?: That is the Question
- Beyond the Usual Suspects: Analytical Approaches for Emerging Contaminants in Food and Food Contact Materials
- M.V.P.s in Foods: Mycotoxins, Veterinary Drug Residues, and Pesticides—From Detection to Confident Food-Safety Decisions
From Packaging to Product: Following PFAS through Food Production Pathways
Track: Chemical Contaminants & Residues
Chair: Dominika Gruszecka, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
Litigation and public attention to PFAS contamination in food has intensified pressure on manufacturers and testing laboratories to deliver reliable data across diverse food matrices. As PFAS leach from food contact materials (FCM) and appear in beverages and complex products, the need for urgent, science‑based action has never been clearer. This session addresses these challenges head‑on by presenting analytical strategies that harmonize public attention and scientific action. It will strengthen consumer protection in addressing responses to the open call for SMPR® 2025.001 PFAS in Food Packaging Materials, and explore PFAS screening beyond the scope of AOACs SMPR®s to date.
Advances in high‑throughput LC-MS/MS workflows, with a goal of eliminating labor‑intensive SPE steps, have demonstrated robust results across more than 20 packaging types, with most surrogate recoveries falling within 70–130%. Screening beyond food contact materials to include human contact and wearables, PFAS was assessed in hygiene and cosmetics products highlighting an increased incidence of PFAS in water resistant products. Complementing these developments, HS‑SPME GC-MS/MS methodologies for volatile PFAS in juices achieve ng/L‑level detection with R² ≥ 0.993 with isotope‑matched internal standardization to accommodate severe matrix effects. Together, these studies address blind spots in PFAS characterization, such as migration dynamics and the fate of surface-coated PFAS throughout the product lifecycle. Attendees will gain clarity on known risks, current workflow best practices, and a roadmap for meeting emerging public demands.
NMR Advancements in the Dietary Supplement Industry
Track: Botanicals & Dietary Supplements
Chairs: Zhengfei Lu, Herbalife Nutrition & Amila Dissanayake, Herbalife Nutrition
The contemporary food and dietary supplement sectors require analytical methodologies that are highly efficient, robust, and sustainable in order to achieve precise physicochemical characterization, detailed compositional profiling, and rigorous authenticity verification across increasingly complex product matrices and bioactive ingredients. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy provides a comprehensive and scientifically rigorous solution to these demands, owing to its exceptional accuracy, intrinsic quantitative capability, superior reproducibility, and non‑destructive nature. As demonstrated, NMR’s ability to generate high‑resolution molecular fingerprints, simultaneously quantify multiple constituents, and maintain analytical integrity across diverse formulations underscores its unique value as a core analytical platform for ensuring product safety, integrity, and regulatory compliance.
Building on these strengths, recent advancements in NMR hardware, pulse‑sequence design, and automation have further expanded its applicability within routine quality‑control and regulatory settings. Improvements in sensitivity, throughput, and data‑processing workflows now support a broad and rapidly growing suite of applications, including identity verification of raw materials, purity and potency assessment through quantitative NMR (qNMR), spectral fingerprinting for authenticity evaluation, and non‑targeted screening capable of detecting adulterants and unexpected contaminants. These developments collectively illustrate how modern NMR technology is reshaping analytical standards across the food and dietary supplement industries. This session aims to highlight these advancements, demonstrate their practical relevance, and support broader adoption of NMR‑based approaches to strengthen quality assurance, enhance consumer protection, and advance scientific rigor within the field.
Developing and Refining Methodologies to Test and Regulate Innovative Agricultural Nutrient Inputs Impacting Tomorrow’s Plants, Soils and Food Supply
Track: Agriculture, Environment, & Biostimulants
Chair: William Hall, N-P-K Consulting, LLC
Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers are continually evolving to meet the ever more demanding needs of today’s agricultural requirements. Sales of Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers (EEF’s) and other novel inputs such as Beneficial Substances and Biostimulants are continuing to grow. New language in HR 7567 “The Farm Bill” specifically addresses these innovative technologies. As these new conservation practices and support are developed utilizing new technologies, both regulatory and industry scientists need to work together to meet the challenges these products will pose. As more precise nutrient release is required and timed to plant needs products will continue to evolve. Reduced losses to the environment are an additional aspect of nutrient use efficiency that are being claimed and need to be monitored. As more claims are made that go beyond the traditional nutrient guarantees methodology must keep up with the regulatory needs of the agricultural community. New nutrient sources and matrices continue to be introduced into the market with new analytes, release profiles and matrices. Broader claims of things like drought stress and nutrient longevity are now seen on labels. Methods to test for analytes like soluble silica, humic substances and availability of macro and micro nutrients are being developed and refined. AAPFCO and the Methods Forum are working to develop methodologies that will meet these evolving claims and regulatory needs. Methods currently under development include new or enhanced techniques for Soluble Silica, Humic Acids, Nutrient Release Profiling and more precise and rugged methods for nutritive and non-nutritive metals.
AOAC Statistics Through Time: Building the Next Generation of Validation Tools
Track: Quality Assurance & Reference Materials
Chair: Paul Wehling, ChemStats Consulting, LLC
This symposium will present an integrated overview of the statistical concepts currently under development within the AOAC Statistics Committee and examine how these ideas may shape the future of method validation. Over its 150‑year history, AOAC has continually adapted its statistical approaches in response to evolving analytical technologies and regulatory expectations. As we look ahead, it is clear that statistical methods will continue to change, raising important questions about what new tools and frameworks will be needed over the next 10–15 years.
The session will open with a historical review of the statistical methods AOAC has used to evaluate validation data sets, providing essential context for understanding current practices. Building on this foundation, subsequent presentations will highlight emerging priorities identified by the Statistics Committee. One speaker will discuss the Committee’s recommendation to routinely report confidence intervals with all statistical estimates, emphasizing the advantages of interval‑based interpretation and the rationale for this shift. Another presentation will explore new ways to design experiments and establish acceptance criteria, with particular attention to balancing accept/reject error risks. The symposium will conclude with a forward‑looking discussion of Bayesian approaches to method validation and how these methods may offer more flexible and informative decision‑making frameworks.
Together, these talks will provide attendees with a clear view of where AOAC statistical practice has been, where it is heading, and how emerging concepts can strengthen future validation guidelines and enhance the overall impact of AOAC’s validation activities.
Developing and Refining Methodologies to Test and Regulate Innovative Agricultural Inputs: Biostimulants and Beneficial Substances Impacting Tomorrow’s Plants and Foods
Track: Agriculture, Environment, & Biostimulants
Chairs: William Hall, N-P-K Consulting, LLC & John Gorsuch, Biowish
Innovation designed to improve nutrient efficiency and plant health continues to thrive. Non-traditional inputs are rapidly being developed and will expand as new language and terms in the proposed Farm Bill (HR 7567) impact USDA funding support. These products will inundate the marketplace; labels will contain new claims, new analytes will be guaranteed, and new matrices will test the ability of regulators to verify label claims and guarantees. The AOAC Agricultural Materials Community is proactively working to develop methodologies to address these upcoming needs.
Products such as biostimulants (microbial and non-microbial) and beneficial substances are rapidly entering the marketplace and states are head pressed to be able to assess and verify their label claims.
A Microbiologist’s Guide to Method Verification: Ensuring Accuracy and Confidence in Food Safety Testing
Track: Microbiology & Molecular Biology Methods
Chair: Erin Crowley, Neogen Corporation
The terms validation and verification are frequently conflated within the food industry, despite representing distinct stages of method performance assessment within international quality frameworks. Prior to the publication of ISO 16140‑3, no harmonized global standard provided a clear distinction or established verification requirements applicable across alternative, rapid, and culture‑based methods. ISO 16140‑3 now defines the minimum criteria for laboratory‑level method verification, complementing the broader validation principles outlined in ISO 16140‑2 and AOAC Appendix J, aligning with accreditation expectations under ISO/IEC 17025.
This symposium will provide a technical examination of the scope and operational implications of ISO 16140‑3, with specific emphasis on its application to methods validated and certified by internationally recognized bodies such as AOAC INTERNATIONAL.
Participants will gain practical guidance on designing statistically defensible, fit‑for‑purpose verification studies, including selection of test portions, replicate structure, acceptance criteria, and data evaluation approaches. Through methodological discussion and case‑based examples, this session will equip laboratory managers, QA specialists, and microbiologists with the knowledge required to implement robust verification protocols aligned with ISO 16140‑3, ensuring methodological integrity, regulatory compliance, and consistency within accredited quality systems.
Examples will include verification workflows for qualitative assays, quantitative enumeration methods, organism confirmation and typing strategies, and identification technologies.
Chemometrics and Big Data for Advanced Characterization of Nutrition and Food Products
Track: Bioinformatics, Chemometrics, & Data Analytics
Chairs: Zhengfei Lu, Herbalife Nutrition & Jing Yi, Herbalife
The increasing adoption of high-throughput analytical technologies in nutrition and food science (from LC-MS, GC-MS, NMR, IR, and other spectroscopic and chromatographic platforms) has led to the generation of large, complex, and diverse datasets. These data include both targeted measurements and broad untargeted profilings (e.g. metabolomics, lipidomics, proteomics, genomics etc.), collectively representing a growing “big data” challenge for analytical and quality laboratories. Extracting reliable & decision-ready information from these datasets requires advanced chemometric and data-analytic methodologies.
This session will focus on the application of chemometrics and advanced analytics to integrate, interpret, and validate diverse analytical data sources for the characterization of nutrition and food products. Representative topics may include multivariate experimental design, data preprocessing and normalization across platforms, feature/data selection, management of analytical variability and batch effects, model validation, and interpretability. Case studies will highlight applications in ingredient characterization, product specification, quality and consistency monitoring, authenticity assessment, and stability evaluation. The session will emphasize practical implementations that demonstrate how big-data-driven chemometrics enhance analytical decision-making across research, analytical, and quality control settings.
Advancements in PFAS Measurements and Reference Materials
Track: Quality Assurance & Reference Materials
Chairs: Elizabeth Mudge, National Research Council Canada & Benjamin Place, National Institute of Standards and Technology
There is an increased need for measurements of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment, food and other commercial products to meet expanding regulatory limits globally. Based on a call for methods, AOAC has adopted four First Action Official Methods of Analysis for PFAS in food and continue to seek additional methods for packaging, cosmetics and environmental samples. There are thousands of chemically distinct PFAS compounds in the environment, which presents many analytical challenges due to variation in compound size, low concentrations, laboratory contamination, structural confirmation and matrix components. Measurements rely on the availability of high-quality reference materials (RMs) for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of PFAS. RMs are an essential tool for testing labs to develop, optimize and validate testing methods, in addition to monitoring method performance on a continuous basis after implementation. This symposium brings together leading experts to discuss the latest advancements in PFAS reference material development, measurements and approaches for integrating reference materials for laboratory quality control.
Untangling the Matrix: Modern Methods for Today’s Superfood and Multi Ingredient Formulations
Track: Botanicals & Dietary Supplements
Chairs: Zhengfei Lu, Herbalife Nutrition & Adam Faller, Herbalife
The rapid expansion of “superfoods” and multifunctional wellness products has introduced unprecedented analytical challenges for the food and dietary supplement industry. Today’s formulations frequently combine nutrient-dense botanicals, vitamins, adaptogenic fungi, probiotics, and mineral complexes – each with distinct chemistries, stability profiles, and marker compounds. As consumer demand accelerates and regulatory expectations intensify, laboratories must be equipped with methods capable of accurately detecting, identifying, and quantifying diverse ingredients within increasingly complex matrices. Laboratories must emphasize robustness in method development pipelines, with the goal of harmonizing pure raw material analysis with that of heterogeneous, interference‑rich finished products.
This session will feature experts at the forefront of analytical innovation, who are successfully employing fit‑for‑purpose methodology to complex formulations. Speakers will highlight advances in genomics‑based authentication of botanical and fungal components, proteomic strategies for characterizing bioactive proteins and peptides, and cutting‑edge methodologies for verifying probiotic identity and viability in finished products. The session will explore how novel methods, “Quality by Design” principles, and integrated analytical platforms can be employed to overcome matrix effects and efficiently establish and validate methods in a quality control environment. As the marketplace continues to evolve, robust and reliable testing approaches are essential for safeguarding quality, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining consumer trust.
Next Generation Fiber Testing for Gut Health Products
Track: Novel Foods & Ingredients
Chairs: Zhengfei Lu, Herbalife Nutrition & Yanjun Zhang, Herbalife
Gut health has become a key driver of innovation in foods and dietary supplements, increasing demand for prebiotics and a broader range of dietary fiber ingredients. As products move beyond traditional fibers to include resistant starches, inulin, galactooligosaccharides (GOS), xylooligosaccharides (XOS) and other emerging fibers, laboratories face challenges in testing fiber accurately in complex matrices. While total dietary fiber remains a foundational analytical value, and current methods can address key parameters such as soluble and insoluble fractions as well as high- and low-molecular-weight fiber components, more fiber-specific methods and additional characterization are often needed to support ingredient quality, product performance, and labeling claims in gut health-focused products.
This session will bring together perspectives from industry, academia, and analytical laboratories to discuss gaps and new approaches for fiber testing in novel foods and ingredients. Topics of interest include roadmap to navigate the use of dietary fiber methods, strategies and approaches to distinguish different fibers within in complex matrices, and emerging tools for degree of polymerization (DP) characterization. The session also welcomes studies on fiber testing method performance across challenging matrices, along with practical guidance on method validation, verification, and result comparability across laboratories.
The session will support ongoing efforts within AOAC programs and working groups focused on dietary fiber and carbohydrate ingredients.
Next-Generation AI-Enhanced Rapid Screening for Food Authenticity and Fraud Detection
Track: Food Authenticity & Food Fraud
Chair: Hafiz Khuram Wasim Aslam, Punjab Food Authority
Food fraud, including adulteration, mislabeling, and substitution of high-value ingredients, poses serious risks to public health, consumer trust, and the global food supply chain. Traditional laboratory-based testing methods, while reliable, are often time-consuming, resource-intensive, and unsuitable for real-time or large-scale monitoring. Next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, integrated with advanced sensor systems, are transforming food authenticity testing by enabling rapid, accurate, and scalable detection of fraudulent products.
This session will present the latest developments in AI-enhanced rapid screening, including machine learning algorithms trained on extensive datasets, spectroscopic and hyperspectral imaging techniques, and predictive analytics for proactive fraud prevention. Real-world applications across diverse food sectors–dairy, edible oils, seafood, spices, and beverages–will be highlighted, demonstrating the detection of adulteration, contamination, and mislabeling with high sensitivity.
Participants will gain insights into the integration of AI with portable sensors, data fusion strategies, and emerging digital traceability tools such as blockchain, enabling real-time monitoring across the supply chain. The session will also explore how AI systems can adapt to evolving fraud methods, ensuring continuous protection of food integrity.
Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how AI-based rapid screening enhances food authenticity testing, improves operational efficiency, and strengthens consumer confidence. This session is essential for analytical chemists, food scientists, regulatory authorities, and industry professionals seeking innovative solutions for modern food fraud detection.
Bridging the Analytical Gap: Advanced Methods for the Identification and Quantification of Actives in the Evolving Functional Mushroom Market
Track: Food Nutrition
Chair: Christine Fields, Applied Food Sciences Inc.
The global functional mushroom market has experienced unprecedented growth, with 2026 projections placing the sector’s valuation at over $36 billion. As mushrooms like Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus), Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), and Cordyceps move from niche dietary supplements into mainstream functional foods and clinical nutrition, the need for robust, standardized analytical methods has become a critical food nutrition priority. Consumers increasingly rely on these “next-generation foods” for bioactive compounds—including beta glucans, triterpenoids, and ergothioneine all of which are linked to immunomodulation, cognitive health, and metabolic support.
However, the rapid commercialization of these products has outpaced the development of validated methodology. A significant paucity of published, peer-reviewed information exists regarding the stability and bioavailability of these actives within complex food matrices. Current analytical challenges include the lack of harmonized protocols to differentiate between mycelium and fruiting body-derived constituents, as well as the high variance introduced by environmental and cultivation factors.
This symposium will address the urgent need for “fit-for-purpose” methods to ensure product integrity and nutritional transparency. Expert speakers will discuss advancements in high-resolution chemical profiling, such as UPLC-MS/MS and metabolomics, to establish chemical fingerprints for authenticity. By aligning with AOAC’s mission for method standardization, this session aims to provide stakeholders with the tools necessary to validate health claims, mitigate food fraud, and ensure that the nutritional promise of functional mushrooms is backed by rigorous, reproducible science.
Color Additives from Natural Sources Done Right: The Quality and Safety Imperative
Track: Food Additives & Colors
Chairs: David Bolliet, Kalsec, Inc. & Bhakti Petigara Harp, U.S. FDA
Color is a critical quality attribute of food products and a key driver of consumer acceptance. As manufacturers increasingly adopt color additives from natural sources (CANS), there is a growing need in the industry for consistent approaches to evaluating their quality, safety, and regulatory compliance. Currently, publicly available and harmonized methods for the analysis of color additives from natural sources are limited.
This session will provide briefings on the AOAC Community on CANS and its efforts to develop voluntary consensus standards supporting the manufacture, analysis, and methods of color additives from natural sources, specifically targeting pesticides, residual solvents, microbiological contaminants, and metals. Attendees will also gain insights into new USP/FCC guidance, hear perspectives from the International Association of Color Manufacturers (IACM) and other key stakeholders, and provide an overview of the FDA color additive petition process, supporting reliable analysis and regulatory approval of color additives throughout the supply chain.
Metals in Consumer Products: Ubiquity, Speciation, and Implications for Safety
Track: Chemical Contaminants & Residues
Chairs: Kevin Kubachka, U.S. FDA & Colleen Bryan, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Metals are ubiquitous in a variety of consumer products including food, beverages, supplements, medical products, and cosmetics. Regulatory authorities worldwide monitor metal levels in these products to ensure safety, as contamination can occur through various routes such as environmental exposure, raw materials, processing equipment, and packaging materials. For some elements, speciation—how metals are bound in compounds—can significantly influence bioavailability and toxicity. This session will address analytical challenges, regulatory considerations, and strategies for accurate detection and quantification of metals and their species in consumer product matrices to ensure safety and compliance.
Advances in Analytical Science for the Identification of Proteins Used in Food and Dietary Supplements
Track: Food Authenticity & Food Fraud
Chairs: Binu Koshy, United States Pharmacopeia & Jian Kong, United States Pharmacopeia
Protein ingredients are receiving unprecedented attention as consumers increasingly seek foods and dietary supplements that promote satiety, support healthy aging, muscle function, and deliver meaningful nutritional value. As global supply chains grow more complex and the risk of adulteration rises, ensuring reliable protein identification is essential to helping safeguard safety, authenticity, regulatory compliance, and overall quality of protein ingredients as improperly identified or adulterated proteins pose a significant allergenicity risk. As the market expands beyond conventional dairy, animal, and soy proteins into non traditional and emerging sources—such as algae, fava bean, chickpea, rice, and a growing range of fermented proteins, the need for advanced analytical tools has intensified. Traditional quality control methods, including organoleptic evaluation and nitrogen based protein assays, lack specificity and are insufficient for verifying identity or detecting adulteration across this diverse and rapidly evolving protein landscape. In contrast, modern analytical approaches that integrate molecular, spectroscopic, and mass based detection provide greater sensitivity, selectivity, and confidence in protein authentication. This session convenes experts from the nutritional industry, national standards organizations, protein ingredient manufacturers, and regulatory agencies. Presenters will discuss recent advances in analytical technologies that enhance the specificity, sensitivity, and overall reliability of protein identification, as well as the practical challenges faced by quality control laboratories and regulators when assessing an increasingly varied array of protein sources. By fostering cross‑sector dialogue among regulators, industry, and scientific stakeholders, the session aims to advance robust protein authentication standards, strengthen adulteration‑prevention efforts, and promote greater transparency and consumer trust.
To Validate or Not to Validate?: That is the Question
Track: Laboratory Management, Compliance, & Accreditation
Chairs: Amy Spence, Tillamook & Celina To, bioMérieux
Emerging technologies—including DNA and protein sequencing, PCR, mass spectrometry, LAMP, and spectroscopy—are rapidly transforming food safety and quality testing. While method validation is essential for regulatory acceptance, far less guidance exists for what happens after a method is certified. Laboratories are routinely left to interpret how much verification is sufficient, how to handle new matrices or sample sizes, and what auditors expect—leading to inconsistent practices and creating uncertainty in data reliability. From a method developer and FSQA lab perspective, validation is often constrained by scope, budget, and time, resulting in narrowly validated methods that are later applied well beyond their original claims. Silent changes such as new ingredients, enrichment media, formulations, sample sizes, or algorithm updates can significantly impact method performance. Without structured, fit-for-purpose re-evaluation, these changes may go unnoticed until discrepancies arise during ISO audits or FDA/State investigations. This session will focus on the underexplored space between method certification and routine use: verification expectations, realistic laboratory practices, and decision-making frameworks for extending methods to new matrices. Speakers will discuss how method developers support customer requests on matrix extensions, how laboratories can prioritize verification activities, and how auditors interpret evidence of ongoing method suitability.
Beyond the Usual Suspects: Analytical Approaches for Emerging Contaminants in Food and Food Contact Materials
Track: Chemical Contaminants & Residues
Chairs: Lorna De Leoz, Agilent Technologies & Susan Genualdi, U.S. FDA
Emerging chemical contaminants in food and food contact materials continue to pose significant analytical challenges as newly detected substances raise potential risks to human health and cause heightened public concern. This symposium will highlight advances in the characterization of emerging contaminants such as PFAS, microplastics, and phthalates as well as the growing landscape of additional compounds of emerging concern.
Continued development and validation of novel analytical methods remain essential to accurately quantify these contaminants, whether they originate from external sources, occur naturally, or form during food processing. The session will provide a perspective on method innovations, current analytical limitations, and future research directions needed to strengthen the detection and risk assessment of emerging contaminants across the food supply chain.
M.V.P.s in Foods: Mycotoxins, Veterinary Drug Residues, and Pesticides—From Detection to Confident Food-Safety Decisions
Track: Chemical Contaminants & Residues
Chair: Kai Zhang, U.S. FDA
This session highlights recent advances and emerging trends in analytical tools and detection strategies for three major categories of food contaminants: mycotoxins, veterinary drug residues, and pesticides (M.V.P.s). In pesticide testing, workflows are moving beyond traditional QuEChERS toward next-generation approaches such as “QuEChERSER,” enabling broader, more efficient sample preparation and improved compatibility with modern instrumentation. Veterinary drugs remain essential to animal production, yet residues in edible products can pose risks to human and animal health. Accordingly, multiclass methods that quantify large panels of veterinary drugs in a single run are advancing rapidly. For mycotoxins, complete elimination from foods is unrealistic under current agricultural and processing practices. AOAC Official Methods and rapid kits continue to support routine monitoring, while LC–MS-based multi-mycotoxin platforms are improving identification confidence, strengthening quantitation, and increasing throughput. Although each contaminant group presents distinct technical challenges, many barriers overlap. A central theme is the shift from single-class methods toward integrated, multi-class strategies that better support surveillance, compliance testing, and risk assessment. Although modern LC–MS/MS and LC-HRMS approaches enable broad screening and higher-confidence identification, truly “one-pass” M.V.P. analysis remains difficult. Speakers will address persistent limitations, including extraction tradeoffs driven by physicochemical diversity (polarity, stability, pKa), matrix effects in complex foods, and incomplete coverage of polar pesticides, veterinary drug metabolites, and emerging mycotoxins. Key issues in wide-scope screening—method transferability, validation, reference standards, and false results—will also be discussed, along with practical identification criteria, databases, and data-processing workflows that translate complex outputs into defensible conclusions.
