HARMONIZATION OF ANALYTICAL TERMINOLOGY IN ACCORDANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS (Agenda item 9)

31. The Committee considered the paper prepared by AOAC INTERNATIONAL at the request of the Codex Secretariat. The paper provided a bibliography to assist the Committee in the harmonization of analytical terminology[13], and also made recommendations on how to progress.

32. While the Committee recognized the usefulness of such a harmonized document, it was also noted that other bodies had abandoned the idea because of the enormity of the task.

33. The Committee therefore agreed to limit the scope of the work involved to defining a small number of terms specifically related to the work of the Committee. The Committee considered that those terms as contained in the Codex Alimentarius Procedural Manual, and the harmonized protocols adopted by the Commission should be ones to be defined. The Committee accepted the recommendations made in the paper. The Delegations of the United States and Finland accepted the Committee’s request to undertake the assignment and AOAC, ISO and IUPAC were requested to collaborate with them.

34. The Committee agreed to the proposal that the Delegations of USA and Finland in collaboration with AOAC INTERNATIONAL, ISO and IUPAC would, during the Session, provide core terms of direct relevance to the work of Codex, for inclusion in the report. Before the next session, the terms would be defined and circulated to governments and interested International Organizations. Based on the comments received, a revised paper would be prepared for consideration at its 21st Session and the IAM at its 12th meeting.

35. The Committee considered the list prepared, as requested above, and provided comments which were utilized in producing the revised tentative list below:

TERMS PERTINENT TO THE CODEX COMMITTEE ON METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND SAMPLING WHICH NEED TO BE DEFINED

- Terms included in the Procedural Manual of the Codex Alimentarius Commission
- Terms included in the harmonized protocols

- for method-performance studies,
- for proficiency testing schemes, and
- for internal quality control

Uncertainty (Reliability) Terms

- Accuracy (recovery)

- error of single value
- trueness
- bias

- repeatability (intermediate)
- reproducibility

- applicability?
- specificity
- sensitivity
- ruggedness (validation)
- limits

- provision
- decision
- quantitation

- Method-performance Studies (validation of methods, outliers, invalid data)
- Laboratory-performance (Proficiency) Studies
- Material-performance Studies (including various kinds of reference materials)

Terms Related to Method Types (I - IV)

36. The Chairman thanked the Representative of AOAC INTERNATIONAL for the paper and also recognized the initiative of the Delegations of the United States and Finland.