Chapter 4 - Validation of Analytical Methods for the Assessment of Hazards in Food

Abstract

Analytical methods that are used in the processing of food must assure the quality and safety of the final product. In all areas of food quality and safety, it is necessary to have reliable analytical methods for use in determining chemical and biological hazards that are concordant with national regulations and international requirements. The reliability of a method is determined by validation results, where specificity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection and determination, and sensitivity and applicability are reported. There exist some comities and guidelines, judge for validation parameters such as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Principles and Application Guidelines, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). According to CAC, a method of analysis to be included in a Codex commodity standard, certain method performance information should be available. Validation of a method can be achieved in three steps: identification of appropriate and necessary validation parameters, design of experiments for parameter evaluation, determination of acceptance criteria. In this chapter, the method validation and their acceptance criteria for the quality and safety of food and validation of analytical methods for the assay of food samples are discussed.