Category Archives: AOAC

AOAC, clean-up, freestyle, GPC, lctech, New Products, pickering laboratories, spe

New! FREESTYLE Series Instrumentation

Pickering Laboratories introduced the Freestyle™ Sample Clean-up workstation from LCTech at this year’s AOAC International meeting in New Orleans.  Building on the success of the GPC Ultra product line of Gel Permeation Chromatography systems,  the FREESTYLE™Series  is an innovative design adding new time saving features to the automated sample clean-up work flow.

The Freestyle™ begins with:

  • FREESTYLE™ Basic, which has an XYZ robotic arm for automated liquid handling; dilutions, additions, mixing, extraction, dispensing, and other operations.
  • Add the GPC module for GPC processing of up to 4 GPC columns. 
  • Add to this the SPE module to enable SPE processing. 
  • Add the EVA module for programmable evaporation and solvent exchange for a completely automated in-line evaporation instrument.
Flexibility of the system starts with the suspended rack design. The system can handle multiple vial shapes from 1mL to 1000mL.

The FREESTYLE™software is drag and drop to program multiple sample parameters and able to handle exceptions to insert into the workflow. Graphical reporting and full audit logs round out the robust software.

The FREESTYLE™ automation of sample clean-up saves time, improves consistency and protects your staff from potentially harmful chemical exposure.

Send us an email or give us a call to find out how FREESTYLE™ can solve your sample clean-up challenges. 

Email: sales@pickeringlabs.com
Phone: Toll-free: 800-654-3330, Direct: 650-694-6700

AOAC

AOAC International 2011

By Mike Gottschalk
Any trip to New Orleans requires a visit to
Cafe du Monde for coffee and beignets

The annual meeting of the AOAC International in New Orleans, Louisiana on September  18-21, had a strong emphasis on Herbal Supplements testing. The AOAC organization is central to FDA efforts to provide analytical structure to testing methods for this newly regulated industry. 

Pickering Laboratories participated in the AOAC sponsored Single Laboratory Validation of Multi-residue Mycotoxin Analysis in Feeds and Grains. For this work, Pickering Laboratories was awarded the “Single Lab Validation of the Year”. This pivotal work in the analysis of Mycotoxins continues in Herbal Supplements as well as agricultural products. 

We presented our new instrumentation and a poster titled “Analysis of Paralytic Shellfish Toxins in Bivalve Mollusks using HPLC with Post-column Derivatization and Fluorescence Detection”

In support of our new instrumentation, the incredibly versatile FREESTYLE series, we presented the highlights and capabilities in our Vendor session on Tuesday afternoon. You can find more details about Freestyle in a separate blog post and on the LCTech website: http://www.lctech.de/english/FREESTYLE-GPC.html

The post-column method for Paralytic Shellfish Toxins presented in our poster is now a official AOAC Method:  OMA 2011.02. Earlier in 2011, we attended the 2nd Joint Symposium & AOAC Task Force Meeting on Marine & Freshwater Toxins meeting in Spain in support of the work done by Mr. Jeffery van der Riet to complete method 2011.02.  You can read about the meeting and the method in an earlier blog post.
If you would like a copy of the poster or any additional information  about our products, please feel free to send us an email or give us a call:

Phone: Toll-free: 800-654-3330 Direct: 650-694-6700


aflatoxin, AOAC

Pickering Laboratories’ Mycotoxin Workshop held at MidWest AOAC in Lincoln, NE

Sculpture on U of NE-Lincoln campus
By Maria Ofitserova, PhD
At the Midwest AOAC meeting (Held from June 6-9, 2011 in Lincoln, Nebraska) Pickering Laboratories presented a workshop on analysis of Aflatoxins in different matrices such as animal feeds, corn and peanut butter. The workshop generated a lot of interest with representatives from several State Departments of Agriculture, State Universities, as well as companies like Silliker and General Mills attending the two sessions of the workshop. The participants were able to learn about new analytical equipment and have a discussion about different aspects of Mycotoxins analysis.

During the workshop the samples extracts were cleaned with AflaClean™ Immunoaffinity columns and analyzed using an HPLC method with post-column photochemical derivatization by UVE™ and fluorescence detection. We also demonstrated how AcceClean™ workstation automates the labor-intensive column clean up step. The participants were impressed with versatility of the AcceClean workstation capable of handling multi-step procedures with both Immunoaffinity and SPE columns.
To learn more about Pickering products for Mycotoxins Analysis please visit our website http://www.pickeringlabs.com/catalog/Mycotoxin_Analysis.asp or call (800)-654-3330
AOAC, paralytic shellfish toxin

2nd Joint Symposium and AOAC Task Force Meeting on Marine and Freshwater Toxins Analysis

Held in Baiona, Spain, May 1-5, 2011
By David Mazawa

.

Pickering Laboratories was proud to sponsor the Second Joint Symposium and AOAC Task Force Meeting of Marine and Freshwater Toxins Analysis. This growing symposium addressed new developments, method validation efforts, and method implementation in the analysis of marine and freshwater toxins. A variety of methods needs for detecting saxitoxins, domoic acids, okadaic acids, azaspiracids, other seafood toxins and the cyanobacterial toxins were addressed. Presentations and discussions addressed special needs of the community ranging from emerging toxins to the ongoing replacement of the mouse bioassay with modern and fully validated chemical methods. Principle sponsor of the symposium was the University of Vigo, Spain, Department of Analytical and Food Chemistry.

New methods have been recently validated in an effort to replace the Mouse Bioassay. Due to the hard work of Jeff van de Riet et al. in his single laboratory validated study, the HPLC post-column oxidation method for analysis of paralytic shellfish toxins (saxitoxins) in shellfish, is now an official AOAC method (AOAC OMA 2011.02). Pickering Laboratories was there to support this occasion and to show the symposium that we have instrumentation perfectly suited for this method. For details on the method, please visit our website or contact Pickering Laboratories Technical Support.  

To view the official method, members should log onto AOAC’s website: www.aoac.org

aflatoxin, AOAC

Southern Section AOAC Meeting

By Wendy Rasmussen

From April 11-12, Pickering attended the Southern Section AOAC Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The meeting was well attended, and we enjoyed some good talks with current and future customers as well as long-time friends in the industry. 


In preparation for our Vendor Seminar (see below), I did some research about the southern states, and Georgia in particular. In the process, I learned a couple of interesting facts about Georgia.  For example, even though Georgia is nicknamed the Peach State, they’re only the 3rd largest producer of peaches. Turns out the state is known for its Quality rather than the quantity of the fruit. According to the internet, Georgia produces A LOT of poultry & eggs (Georgia is ranked 1st in the US for production of broilers*),  but also peanuts as well as cotton and tobacco.

We presented a Vendor Seminar at the meeting about our Aflatoxin Analysis products. We opted for a “show & tell” approach in which we brought in the key components to the method: 

UVE Photochemical Reactor

 

AflaClean Immunoaffinity Columns


and the AcceCLEAN Automated Sample Handling Workstation

The combination of these products was later demonstrated at the Mid West AOAC Workshop in Lincoln, NE



More about Georgia:
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gaecon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_%28U.S._state%29


*Broiler: A young chicken bred for meat
AcceCLEAN, aflatoxin, AOAC, dietary supplements, GPC, herbal products, Multi-residue Mycotoxin Analysis, mycotoxin, natural products, UVE

Pickering Laboratories Introduces Key Products to Herbal Supplements Market

By Mike Gottschalk

The Supplyside West Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada October 19-23, is a very important Herbal Supplement Industry event. It provides important educational and networking opportunities to this $29 billion market. Since the FDA sent out required current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) in 2007, the Herbal Supplement producers are working to meet the new requirements before the FDA audits. These regulations are intended to insure the quality, purity and safety of the Herbal Supplement products available today. Pickering Laboratories had a booth at the show to assist the producers and laboratories with the instrumentation, chemistry, methods, and support for the analysis and clean-up of samples for Amino Acids, Aflatoxins, Carbamate pesticides, Glyphosate Herbicides, and 23 other methods.

Click on the links to see our Latest Method Abstracts, introduced at the show:
1) MA 215: Clean-up and Determination of Alfatoxins in Peanuts and Peanut Butter 

2) MA 218: Clean-up and Analysis of Aflatoxins and Ochratoxin A in Herbs and Spices 


The annual meeting of the AOAC International in Orlando, Florida on September 20-25, also had a strong emphasis on Herbal Supplements testing. The AOAC organization is central to FDA efforts to provide analytical structure to testing methods for this newly regulated industry. Pickering Laboratories participated in the AOAC sponsored Single Laboratory Validation of Multi-residue Mycotoxin Analysis in Corn. For this work, Pickering Laboratories was awarded the “Single Lab Validation of the Year”. This pivotal work in the analysis of Mycotoxins continues in Herbal Supplements as well as agricultural products.

Send us an email to support@pickeringlabs.com to request a copy of our poster: “Clean-up and Determination of Alfatoxins in Peanuts and Peanut” from the AOAC show.

Our next show is Pittcon 2011 on March 13-18 in Atlanta, Georgia.

See you there!

AOAC, dinoflagelates, paralytic shellfish toxin, post-column derivatization, psp

Mouse Out! Chemistry In. Updates in Paralytic Shellfish Toxins

By Saji George

The paralytic shellfish toxins are a group of 18 secondary metabolites deposited in bivalve mollusks by dinoflagelates. Dinoflagelates blooms are seasonal, occurring during warm months. Since it is unpredictable whether an infestation will occur, the shellfish population should be regularly monitored for toxins. Ingestion of contaminated shellfish can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning; a life-threatening illness.

Mouse bioassay is the official method of AOAC International, but the drawbacks associated with this method have led to exploration of chemical methods. The most common HPLC post-column method is to oxidize the separated toxins under alkaline conditions to a fluorescent compound. Sullivan et al. used this method to determine the gonyautoxins 1-6 (GTX1-6), saxitoxin (STX) and neosaxitoxin (neoSTX) but not the N-sulfocarbamoyl-11-hydroxysulfate toxins (C1-C4). Oshima et al. modified this method to determine the 3 toxin groups separately using isocratic elution with 3 different mobile phases. Further improvement by Jeffery van de Riet of the Canadian Food inspection Agency (CFIA) in collaboration with National Research Council Canada (CNRC) has led to a shorter analysis time to determine the 3 groups of toxins using step gradient and a switching valve.

Marine Biotoxins were a hot topic at the recent Pacific Northwest AOAC meeting in Tacoma, WA. According to Jeff, this method is also the topic of an AOAC interlaboratory study (currently underway) and has already been approved by the Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) at the single laboratory validation (SLV) stage for use in the United States as a screening (type IV) method in shellfish monitoring. If approved by AOAC following the interlaboratory study as an official method of analysis (OMA) for shellfish, the method will then be eligible for consideration as a type II reference method by Codex Alimentarius This will also effectively end the use of mouse bioassays in shellfish monitoring within Canada.

This method was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific NW Section, held at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in Tacoma, which offered extensive laboratory training workshops this past June.