Food Authenticity Program Meeting Book (September 10, 2020)

Why are we talking today ? Our products are complex. Our products are diverse.

Our products change - from crop to crop - by origin location - with processing

Developing analytical techniques is not what ESA does, but we are impacted by them. We want them to be right. We want to support good advances. Not every advance is universally applicable. One size does not fit all.

Why are we talking today ?

Traditional analytical methods have been targeted searches for known contaminants, either microbiological or chemical. More recently methods are attempting to demonstrate authenticity by non-targeted approaches. This is a great progression but it requires knowledge of what authenticity is. The complexity of herbs and spices described shows that we – labs and industry - need to work together to achieve successful development of analytical methods. Success is the achievement of reliable results from a method. This will allow good uptake of services and less challenges and retractions.