TDRM/TDLM Workshop at the AOAC INTERNATIONAL Annual Meeting 2013

The Technical Divisions on Reference Materials (TDRM) and Laboratory Management (TDLM) offered the workshop “Building the use of certified reference materials into dispute resolution” at the AOAC INTERNATIONAL Annual Meeting in Chicago on 27 August 2013. Topics discussed included: increasing demands for testing services in today’s global marketplace; regulators and other interested parties requesting information on a continual basis, resulting in challenges for a contract analytical laboratory; and multinational corporations often facing the issue of differences in data generated by different laboratories and in different countries. Is it for a method-defined parameter such as fat or fiber, where method trueness is based more on strict adherence to the defined method than in case of methods that target the absolute amount of a single chemical substance such as a specific heavy metal? [...]the role of emotion and people skills during dispute was discussed.