The MoniQA Food Allergen Reference Materials Task Force met on 27 September 2017, 14:00-17:00 at the 131st AOAC Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The task force was attended by some 30 participants and discussed the progress and the next steps in the design and production of validated food allergen reference materials. After the first set of milk reference materials became available at the beginning of 2017 (see also http://shop.moniqa.org/), further materials are in preparation.
Roland Poms from MoniQA gave an update on the characterization activities for the wheat/gluten material and the soy material. Both materials will be prepared as commodity materials and incurred in a cookie material at a Low and High concentration at relevant analytical levels. The total egg and egg white materials will follow the lead of the milk materials and will also become available in similar protein standard concentrations. It was well accepted that the materials are validated in mg/kg protein and that results obtained with any analytical method shall be encouraged to express their results in mg/kg commodity protein also, which will help to facilitate communication between analysts, risk assessors, and regulatory bodies.
Members of the Task Force and MoniQA Members can access a full report and presentation of the meeting.