NMKL and AOAC International have signed an Agreement of Cooperation that will streamline the process for test kit companies seeking recognition from NordVal International and AOAC simultaneously.

The new agreement allows the two organizations and their respective certification programmes to jointly develop and use common evaluation protocols and select independent testing laboratories.

The goal of the cooperative agreement is to reduce the economic barrier imposed by requiring separate studies. Joint protocols mean method developers will be able to conduct testing once at one laboratory, and the data will be applicable to both AOAC and NMKL. Each organization will conduct reviews, render decisions on approvals of methods and issue certificates.

NordVal International receives many applications and, consequently, regularly seeks members to its technical committee. If you are interested in contributing to its work, ref. below-mentioned description of functions, please contact the NMKL secretariat. To see description of functions please click here

When the result of a chemical analysis is presented in an analytical report it is recommended that it should always be reported as a numerical result. For the result to be complete, the measurement uncertainty of the analysis should also be included. In many cases, a result can be very hard to interpret unless accompanied by its uncertainty.

In this updated version of the procedure, guidance on how to handle bias / systematic errors in relation to measurement uncertainty is included. The principles described in Nordtest TR 537 for environmental analyzes have been introduced in the NMKL procedure and examples showing how these calculations are to be performed have been added. Whether one can or should correct for systematic errors is a complex issue, and a new section has been added to explain his. Additionally, minor restructuration and update of references have been undertaken.

A scandinavian version of this 3rd edition will follow.

NMKL method No. 203 describes the determination of sodium content in foodstuffs by capillary electrophoresis (CE). The CE method is quick and needs both very little sample handling and low amount of solvents. It is applicable to various matrices such as bread, vegetables and meat products. The salt content is calculated from the sodium content with the formula: salt = 2.5 x sodium.

Sodium is extracted from sample and analysed by CE with diode array detector. The minimum content of sodium that can be detected and quantified is 0.03 g/100 g.

NMKL 151 Presumptive Shigella spp. Detection in foods has been reintroduced and updated.

The presence of Shigella in food and the environments is normally of human fecal origin. Shigella is host-specific for higher primates, including humans. Shigella is usually present in foods in low number due to their poor ability to compete. Consequently, they are notoriously difficult to detect in foods. The infectious dose is low, and only 10-100 Shigella are needed to cause infection. Due to the low infectious dose, cross contamination from infected humans to foods and further on to more persons can occur, for example through handling of foods. Person-to-person contamination can also occur. It has been shown that Shigella can survive in weeks and months in or on different foodstuffs.

In this updated method, a step to reduce background flora and ease the isolation of Shigella for some matrices has been introduced. In addition, recommendation regarding which plates to use has been added. This method can be used for subsequent isolation of Shigella spp. after using NMKL 174, 2016, for detection of the virulence factor ipaH in enrichment broth. NMKL 174 can also be used for detection of ipaH in presumptive colonies.

NordVal International Certificate 046 "Salmonella Velox” issued to DNA Diagnostic has been renewed.
The method is applicable for the detection of Salmonella spp. in raw meat, poultry and fishery products as well as ready-to-cook, ready-to-reheat and ready-to-eat meat, poultry and fishery products and on swabs performed on raw food. See the certificate here.

Two NordVal International certificates issued to Biotecon have been renewed: NordVal International Certificate 023 "foodproof® Salmonella Detection Kit, Hybridization Probes and foodproof® Salmonella Detection Kit, 5’ Nuclease, in combination with foodproof® ShortPrep I Kit or foodproof® StarPrep One Kit” and  NordVal International Certificate 025 ”foodproof® Listeria monocytogenes Detection Kit, Hybridization Probes and foodproof® Listeria monocytogenes Detection Kit,  5’ Nuclease, in combination with foodproof® ShortPrep II Kit or foodproof® StarPrep Two Kit”.  Both methods are real-time PCR and use detection with specific, fluorescence labelled probes. The former is applicable for food, feed and environmental samples and the latter for food and environmental samples. See certificate No. 023 here and No. 025 here.

Two NordVal International certificates issued to Hyserve have been renewed: NordVal International Certificate 042 "Compact Dry X-SA Method for the Enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus in Foods" and NordVal International Certificate 043 ”Compact Dry YM Method for the Enumeration of Yeasts and Moulds in foods”. Compact Dry comprises ready-to-use dry media sheets with culture medium and a cold-soluble gelling agent, rehydrated by inoculating 1ml diluted sample into the centre of the self-diffusible medium. The Compact Dry X-SA and the Compact  Dry YM methods both contain chromogenic medium and selective agents for the detection and enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus or yeast and mould, respectively. See certificate No. 042 here and No. 043 here.

NordVal International Certificate 017 "Campylobacter real-time PCR” issued to Eurofins, has been renewed.
This real time PCR method is applicable for the detection of the human pathogenic thermotolerant Campylobacters  (C. jejuni, C. coli and C. lari) in chicken raw meat, cloacae swabs and faecal samples collected on disposable shoe covers in rearing houses. See the certificate here.

NMKL method No. 202, "Methylmercury: determination by isotope dilution GC-ICPMS in foodstuffs", describes the quantitative determination of mono-methylmercury (MMHg) (10-5000 µg/kg dry weight) in mainly marine biota samples. The principle of the method is that the sample is spiked with an appropriate amount of Hg isotope-enriched MMHg and extracted. After derivatisation the sample is analysed using GC-ICPMS. The GC separates the different mercury species before MMHg is atomised and ionised in the high temperature of the ICP. The ions are extracted from the plasma, and in a mass spectrometer the ions are separated by their mass/charge ratio.