The AOAC annual meeting is always a high point in the calendar. This year, the 129th AOAC Annual Meeting is being held in sunny Los Angeles, California, in late September (27-29th). The largest meeting in the AOAC’s annual calendar, it is designed to offer scientific sessions, workshops and presentations to meet a number of analytical needs.
AOAC standards are used globally to promote trade and to facilitate public health and safety. The meeting brings together a large number of the world’s top scientists with knowledge and experience of food safety, nutrition, method validation and advances in methodology for food applications.
With opportunities to learn about changes and advances in methodology, network and collaborate, the meeting attracts: food companies (from small to major global manufacturers’), regulatory bodies (e.g. US FDA, USDA, EU Commission), alternative method validation and certification bodies (e.g. AOAC-RI, AFNOR Certification, MicroVal), university research teams, method developers and commercial companies involved in alternative methods for the food market.
For me, it will be a chance to meet face-to-face with US contacts from certification bodies and validation laboratory partners, and to take in key scientific sessions (e.g. updates on the regulatory criteria for food assay validation), as well as AOAC stakeholder panels, which have become crucial in feeding in changes to ISO method development.
I’m also presenting five posters, four of which detail the validation studies conducted to gain AOAC-RI Performance Tested MethodsSM certification for the Thermo Scientific™ SureTect™ Real-Time PCR Assay range. As AOAC-RI certify rapid methods for pathogen and allergen detection and enumeration on behalf of US FDA and USDA, these studies enable US based customers, and those exporting food materials to the US, to use our rapid alternative methods.
Tuesday 29th September
- Comparison of the FDA BAM Salmonella method and a new PCR method for detection of Salmonella species in spices
– Jonathan Cloke and Helen Simpson
Wednesday 30th September
- Validation of the Thermo Scientific SureTect Real-Time PCR method for detection of Salmonella in food and environmental samples
– Jonathan Cloke, Dorn Clark, Roy Radcliff, Carlos Leon-Velarde, Nathan Larson and Keron Dave - AOAC-RI Performance Tested Method validation of the Thermo Scientific SureTect Listeria Species PCR Assay
– Jonathan Cloke, Carlos Leon-Velarde, Nathan Larson, Keron Dave, Helen Simpson, Craig Hopper, Katharine Evans, David Crabtree, Annette Hughes, Milena Oleksiuk and Sophie Withey - Validation of the Thermo Scientific SureTect Real-Time PCR method for detection of Listeria monocytogenes in food and environmental samples
– Jonathan Cloke, Carlos Leon-Velarde, Nathan Larson, Keron Dave, Helen Simpson, Craig Hopper, Katharine Evans, David Crabtree, Annette Hughes, Milena Oleksiuk and Sophie Withey - AOAC-RI Performance Tested Method validation of the Thermo Scientific SureTect Escherichia coli O157:H7 PCR Assay
– Jonathan Cloke, Patrick Bird, Erin Crowley, Ben Bastin, Jonathan Flannery, James Agin, David Goins, Dorn Clark, Roy Radcliff, Nina Wickstrand and Mikko Kauppinen
If you will be at the meeting, I look forward to discussing the posters and answering any questions you may have. It’s an 11.5 hour flight or 5,400 mile flying distance from the UK, where I’m based. The conference organizers have warned that although the weather is on average around 78°F (25°C) in LA (which is warmer than the UK in late September) outside, the hotel/conference building is heavily air conditioned meaning that it’s essential to bring warm clothes!
If you are not able to attend the meeting, you can read more about how the SureTect system can support your food safety testing, along with validation studies, on the Thermo Scientific website.
Jonathan Cloke is Food Safety Validation Specialist, Microbiology, at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
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