Food Authenticity Program Meeting Book (September 10, 2020)

AOAC FOOD AUTHENTICITY/FRAUD PROGRAM

Daniele Sohier, Ph.D. ThermoFisher Scientific

Chair, Molecular Applications Working Group After one-year post-doc fellow at INRA (FR) in 1999, Daniele spent 16 years at ADRIA Food Technology Institute (FR) to develop first the R&D facilities and service activities in molecular biology. She took the lead of the food safety and

quality team in 2003. ADRIA has become one of the most important expert laboratories running method validation studies in Europe. She provided the first protocols to harmonize validation studies to fit with both ISO 16140-2 and AOAC requirements. Beside certification projects for companies providing alternative methods, the laboratory has increased other service activities dedicated to food producers such as challenge-test studies and genotyping for source tracking, as well as collaborative R&D programs. In August 2016, Daniele joined Bruker (DE) to coordinate the development in industrial microbiology. She conducted the first ISO 16140-part 6 validation study together with MicroVal and obtained the first Official Method Analysis by AOAC International for a mass spectrometry solution in food microbiology. The work on a mass spectrometry solution dedicated to the agri/food microbiology market was honored by AOAC International with two awards, Award of the Method of The Year 2018 and Award of the Publication of the Year 2019. She joined ThermoFisher (UK) in November 2019 to coordinate the scientific interaction with research scientists, laboratory and food safety managers, as well as the relationship with food safety authorities and certification bodies. She is responsible for developing the global food certification strategies and ensuring the recognition of Thermofisher solutions in food protection. Daniele is strongly involved in international standardization with ISO and AOAC and is used to convene working groups or projects such as the development of Classification of Food Categories Table within AOAC ISPAM, the ISO 16140-parts 1 and 7 in the method validation framework, the ISO 20976-part 1 on challenge-tests in food microbiology, and more recently the AOAC working group on Molecular Applications for Food Authenticity/Fraud Program.