validation (3)

12365337854?profile=RESIZE_584xThe Food Integrity Unit of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), is looking for laboratories with expertise in beeswax analyses, interested in participating in a method validation study by inter-laboratory comparison according to ISO 5725-2.                                                                
The goal is to evaluate repeatability and reproducibility of the gas chromatography based analytical method for quantifying paraffin n-alkanes respectively stearin/stearic acid in beeswax with the aim to identify potential adulteration of beeswax.                                                                                         
The participants will receive a set of beeswax test samples, the detailed analytical protocol of the method, and the necessary consumables, free of charge.                                                                   
If you interested in being part of this important project that will lead to the future standardisation of the method by an international standardisation organization, please contact: Christina.CHRISTIA@ec.europa.eu 

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4716501062?profile=RESIZE_180x180During the current pandemic there is a greater demand for products and services, particularly Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and it is important that procurers are confident that what they are buying is fit for purpose and meets the necessary safety standards. 

In recent weeks UKAS has become aware of a rising number of counterfeit certificates relating to PPE, making false claims over holding quality standards.  The certificate being supplied to provide confidence may appear to tick all the boxes and to meet the required standards, but what can be done to make sure? The simple checks below can be made to validate the certificate, enabling the purchase to be made with confidence.

  •  Step 1: Check that the certificate has been issued by a certification body that is accredited by an internationally                                      recognised accreditation body. 
  • Step 2Check the claims by the certification body that they hold the appropriate accreditation from the accreditation body. 
  • Step 3Validation of certificate.
Read full guide: https://bit.ly/35j4mJY
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Modern analytical measurement technologies for food authentication, such as infrared, NMR, mass spectrometry and chromatography, produce the data (spectrum, chromatogram) recorded in digital form. A measurement on a single sample typically comprises thousands of numbers, which is many more than the number of samples, meaning that the experiment overall is underdetermined. Furthermore, chemically different specimens often give rise to quite similar measurements, especially in some of the spectroscopy methods, where there are large numbers of overlapped spectral bands. The techniques of multivariate analysis are especially suitable for dealing with this kind of data to get the best out of these complex and unwieldy datasets.

In this scientific opinion paper, the advantages of a multivariate strategy compared with univariate assessments are discussed, and selected techniques that are now well established in analytical chemistry, such as the data compression methods of principal component analysis are examined. Predictive approaches suitable for authentication applications: discriminant and classification strategies, and class-modelling techniques are also considered. Validation is critical to the application of multivariate techniques. Also, the wider aspects of experimental design, such as the importance of representative sampling are discussed and illustrated from real-world examples of food authenticity problems. 

Read the abstract here

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