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Because you received very little information from your colleague there are many questions you need to ask, for example:

1. About the biscuits. Which product was sampled? Which brand name? Etc.

2. About the sampling procedure: How were the biscuits sampled? At which places, in which way, how many samples were taken? Sample unit, etc.

3. About the sampling handling: you need to know how the samples were handled before they were send to the laboratory. How were they stored? etc

4. About the analysis: you need to know how the samples were analyzed, which methods were used, by which laboratory etc.

5. About the quality of the analysis: did the laboratory have a quality assurance system? Etc.

Verify whether you asked questions about each stages from sampling to analyzes. It is not necessary to be fully comprehensive, but realize that you need more information before you can decide whether the data are of sufficient quality to include in the database. Note that this module focus on the laboratory analysis of foods. Therefore, from now on we assume that you are convinced about the quality of the sampling procedure, the sampling handling etc.

Imagine that you are working at a large nutritional research institute. You are involved in a large FCDB program and your task is to compile a Food Composition Database (FCDB). You just started with your job and at a certain morning a colleague enters your office…..

Which questions do you want to ask? Ask at least 5 questions. Note that it is not necessary to be comprehensive, but make sure that together your questions cover the most important aspects in the sampling and analysis procedures.