FDA FERN Cooperative Agreement Program

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.<p> Specifically, the objectives that will be met include:</p><p><ol><li> Revalidate method TO-22 on the VELOS platform.</li><li> Validate method TO-22 on the Q-Exactive platform.</li><li> Validate method CHE.006 on the Agilent 7890 GC-MS utilizing DRS software.</li><li> Validate Saxitoxin ELISA screen on food matrices.</li><li> Develop and validate a multi-analyte mycotoxin screen on grains and feeds.</li><li> Develop and validate the speciated arsenic method on seaweed, apple juice and rice.</li><li> Develop and validate a method for the analysis of zinc phosphide on infant formula and animal feed.</li><li> Participate in proficiency testing of current food testing methodologies.</li><li> Participate in method enhancement activities to extend analytical capacity.</li><li> Participate in the analysis of surveillance samples.</li><li> Participate in the analysis of emergency outbreak samples.</li><li> Achieve ISO 17025 accreditation.</li><li> Participate in national and regional FERN training opportunities.</li><li> Effectively communicate with other FERN laboratories and the FERN NPO.</li></ol></p>