FDA FERN Cooperative Agreement Program CA Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory System Project Summary/Abstract The objective of this proposal is to continue our laboratory's involvement win the FERN CAP. This will enable us to continue with the analyses of foods and food products in the event that there is a chemical food contamination incident that potentially compromises the safety of our nation's food supply. We will be participating, as needed, in the development, validation and expansion of methods designed to screen a variety of food matrices for diverse and potentially harmful chemicals including unknown compounds, using GC/MS, LC/MS, ICP/MS and ELISA methodologies. We will be participating in surveillance assignments enacted by the FDA. Laboratory personnel will participate in training exercises designed to assess the ability of FERN to respond to various contamination scenarios, participate in national and regional training conferences, and assist in the validation and expansion of existing FERN methods. The laboratory will pursue ISO-17025 accreditation. Our quality program will be tested via our participation in FERN proficiency exercises. Specifically, the objectives that will be met include: ? Revalidate method TO-22 on the VELOS platform. ? Validate method TO-22 on the Q-Exactive platform. ? Validate method CHE.006 on the Agilent 7890 GC-MS utilizing DRS software. ? Validate Saxitoxin ELISA screen on food matrices. ? Develop and validate a multi-analyte mycotoxin screen on grains and feeds. ? Develop and validate the speciated arsenic method on seaweed, apple juice and rice. ? Develop and validate a method for the analysis of zinc phosphide on infant formula and animal feed. ? Participate in proficiency testing of current food testing methodologies. ? Participate in method enhancement activities to extend analytical capacity. ? Participate in the analysis of surveillance samples. ? Participate in the analysis of emergency outbreak samples. ? Achieve ISO 17025 accreditation. ? Participate in national and regional FERN training opportunities. ? Effectively communicate with other FERN laboratories and the FERN NPO.
FDA FERN Cooperative Agreement Program CA Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory System Project Narrative This project is designed to protect the U.S. food supply from accidental or intentional chemical contamination through the development of broadly based analytical screening methodologies. In addition the project seeks to enhance methods that may be utilized for food surveillance. All goals and objectives are focused on the intention that the outcome of the project will enhance the capabilities of the FDA by offering our expertise in areas of food and feed analysis. Also our intent to participate in FERN activities should increase the capacity of the FDA to develop and validate new methods, expand existing methods to new food and feed matrices, and to enhance the capacity of the FDA to respond quickly to emergencies involving new analytes. Matrices that will be focused upon in this project include grains, grain products, milk and other dairy products, infant formula, baby foods, animal feeds and animal feed ingredients. Analytical systems utilized include gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS), inductively coupled plasma- mass spectrometry (ICP/MS) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). The project will also allow for the development of a qualified workforce in the various methodologies.
