The Analytical Solutions Forum is a mechanism for AOAC’s global stakeholders to identify emerging analytical needs, propose actions to address them, and identify emerging technologies to support them.
AOAC’s New Initiatives process takes the next step by bringing together the human and financial resources to support these priority standards development projects.
AOAC’s strategic operating model includes traditional stakeholder panels as well as focused, self-sustaining programs. Depending on community needs, each program may integrate elements from AOAC’s suite of capabilities:
The primary vehicle for supporting New Initiatives is through participation in an AOAC Advisory Panel. Advisory Panels are program-specific groups comprising representatives from organizations who commit to contributing funding each year and who are instrumental in determining priorities for the program’s working groups.
Members of the AOAC Southeast Asia section identified in 2023 the need for standardized and harmonized methods of analysis to determine pesticide residues in spices and herbs. A survey by the “Working Group on Method Harmonization” indicated that stakeholders’ most important analytical challenges for this analysis and category of samples involve matrix effects, sample preparation, extraction and clean-up, and analyte identification. The Working Group conducted surveys to support prioritization of pesticides and matrices with the focus on spices and herbs used in culinary applications, but recognized that this initiative could potentially be extended to spices and herbs used in other applications, such as in flavorings and dietary supplements.
To address the need for updated definitions and alignment of the current fiber methods within the Official Methods of Analysis, AOAC will convene an Advisory Panel of organizations including private companies as well as non-profit scientific organizations. The AP will then determine the priorities and scoping for a technical Working Group.
Functional mushrooms are currently utilized by the dietary supplement, food, and pharmaceutical industries. New uses and applications of these nutritive and bioactive ingredients continue to expand, including their utilization as alternatives to meat. To address the need for standardized methods, AOAC is forming an Advisory Panel (AP) of organizations to prioritize and scope the needs of this community.
AOAC INTERNATIONAL food industry stakeholders face ongoing pressure to monitor and comply with ever changing regulations for chemical contaminants including compounds used in food contact material and packaging.
Current efforts on ethylene oxide, heavy metals, PA, and PFAS will not be discontinued, rather this initiative will allow for additional new projects to move forward.
AOAC will conduct a survey of interested organizations in order to prioritize a list of chemical contaminants before choosing one option for launch in 2025. From the list of interested organizations, we will create a new Advisory Panel that will commission a new technical Working Group. The Working Group will be comprised of volunteers as well as appointed scientific advisors who are experts in this field. The output of the Working Group will be a SMPR which will then led to a call for methods process, resulting in a new official method for analysis which is fit-for-purpose.
AOAC INTERNATIONAL food and dietary supplement industry stakeholders rely on vitamin methodology for formulation, nutrition content and subsequent nutrition fact panels as well as for shelf-life compliance testing. There are gaps in the available methods that could be addressed through a new vitamin program. For some foods, there is a lack of validated methods. Even when validated methods exist, new units of expression, newly authorized molecules used for fortification and newly identified compounds with biological activity (or new evidence of the lack of biological activity) need to be taken into consideration within the methods. Improved instrumentation such as more selective, faster and robust alternatives such as MS/MS could replace older technologies including microbiological methods. Multi-vitamin methods may also be applicable and highly advantageous. Working to harmonize the definitions with global groups is another possible benefit.
AOAC will convene an Advisory Panel of organizations to prioritize a list of vitamin methods before choosing one option for work in 2025. The AP will then provide a scope for a new technical Working Group. The Working Group will be comprised of volunteers as well as appointed scientific advisors who are experts in this field. The output of the Working Group will be a SMPR which will then led to a call for methods process, resulting in a new official method for analysis which is fit-for-purpose.
