Key Steps and overall analytical methods

[Anonymous]

 

Key steps in the analysis of foods for components are significant stages in the process of measuring the amount of a component present. The Technical Annex of the EuroFIR Standard provides for separate fields in the Method Specification entity specification for the analytical key steps of Extraction, Separation, Identification, Detection, Quantification and Other method key steps. The current specification does not give a Data Type for these fields, so they may be defined as either text fields or as thesaurus fields, using terms selected from the Method Indicator Thesaurus. At present, Method Indicator terms are only specified for use in the Method Indicator field of the Value entity and this field does not provide for the multiple occurrence of terms from the thesaurus. Thus a single method must be selected for method documentation that best represents the overall analytical method reported.

 

At present the Method Indicator Thesaurus contains a mixture of terms that include some for individual key steps (e.g. Enzyme hydrolysis, MI1021), some combining more than one into a single term (e.g. Acid hydrolysis with gravimetric quantification, MI1202) and some using named methods to represent the overall analytical procedures (e.g. Southgate method, MI1064).

 

The EuroFIR Guidelines for Assessment of Methods for Analysis (GAMA) include information on the recommended methods in relation to terms in the Method Indicator Thesaurus. This commonly refers to both the extraction method and the separation/determination method, for example for Thiamin “High-performance liquid chromatography EuroFIR Method Indicators MI1137 are the reliable methods preceded by enzymatic method MI1218”. Various methods mentioned, e.g. saponification and pressure digestion, are not currently included in the Method Indicator Thesaurus.

 

Thus there are important aspects of method documentation that need further guidelines, including answers to the following:

 

• Should Method Indicator terms be designed to document individual Key Steps (e.g. Acid hydrolysis and Gravimetric quantification) or overall methods (e.g. Acid hydrolysis with gravimetric quantification)?
• Should multiple Method Indicator terms be allowed in the Method Indicator field of the Value entity?
• Should Method Indicator terms be specified as the content of the Method Specification analytical key step fields?

 

Until these points have been resolved, the terms in the Method Indicator Thesaurus and their scope notes cannot usefully be revised and improved. Please post your views on these questions as soon as possible so that clear policies on method documentation can be fully discussed and then implemented.

 

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