News

Isotope ratio data are increasingly used in a variety of fields including, ecology, marine sciences, earth and geosciences, forensic science, hydrology, medicine, food (including food authenticity and origin), and climate science.
 
Over the years, there have also been changes to guidelines for measurement methods, calibration conventions and even to international measurement standards that form the base of the traceability chain for isotope delta values for H, C, N, O and S.
 
It is impossible to combine isotope ratio data from a variety of sources unless the data are accompanied by a clear description of traceability and other method details.

The UK National Measurement Laboratory at LGC was part of an international group that compiled the IUPAC Technical Report presenting minimum requirements for reporting isotope ratio data, covering analytical procedure, traceability, data processing and uncertainty evaluation.

This report will help in the standardisation of methods that involve the measurement of stable isotopes.

Read the IUPAC Technical Report on minimum requirements for publishing hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur stable-isotope delta results.

Food fraud has beset governments for centuries, and the legal responses to it have been uniquely suited to the sensibilities of the time.

This publication follows the concept of food fraud described to occur when a fraudster intentionally deceives a customer about the quality and/or contents of the foods they wish to purchase, and such act is done to obtain an undue advantage, most often economic, for the fraudster.

The vastness and complexity of food fraud, and the versatility in regulatory approaches can challenge national governments in their attempts to develop a coherent, focused approach to food fraud. To respond to this challenge, this paper introduces the available international regulatory guidance and the potential legal strategies at the national and regional level. It identifies and analyses some of the regulatory approaches to food fraud that countries have chosen and pays attention to the role of the private sector in food fraud regulation.

Read full report: https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9035en

This report has been added to the 'Policy-Guidance-Law' section of our website.

 AOAC International's Food Authenticity Task Force has developed standard method performance requirements (SMPR) for targeted and non-targeted food authenticity methods. SMPR set minimum performance criteria that food authenticity testing methods for milk, honey and olive oil need to fulfil. 

Further information was provided in a recent free-of-charge webinar, which can be viewed on registration.