Asia Pacific Workshop on the Detection and Identification of LMOs

POSTED ON BEHALF OF JOE SAID
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Dear Participants of the Forum,

I am pleased to welcome you to the first round of online discussions of Asia Pacific workshop on the detection and identification of LMOs.

As agreed at the workshop, and outlined in the report of the meeting (which will be available at http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/meetings/documents.shtml?eventid=5618), this round of the online discussions is dedicated to sample preparation. The aim of this discussion is to share practical experiences and knowledge on sample preparation from different matrices including considerations for troubleshooting.

I would like to invite you to post any relevant material on the matter, especially your experiences with different sample preparation methods of LMOs you may be using as well as pose questions and comments on specific areas where additional information is needed so that others that may have this information available can share it with the group. Also available as a background document for this discussion is module 3, on sample preparation and extraction, of the Draft Training Manual on the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms

The discussion will take place for the next two weeks. Your views and feedback will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to a fruitful discussion!

Best regards,
Joe

Dear participants,

I encourage you to participate in this discussion, i believe this is a good opportunity for us to communicate and learn from each other, so i am kindly inviting you to share any kind of questions and concerns regarding the sample preparation in GMOs analysis. I will be posting some general definitions of terms commonly used in this step, the types of errors encountered during the preparation, how to minimize these errors, the types of samples/processing degrees and how to perform the sample preparation step along with some QA/QC considerations. Please feel free to add any information you want!

Hi all,
The topic sample preparation for GMO analysis on which our current discussion is happening, I understood is one most crucial step in our testing. Here we are mainly focusing on ensuring the homogeneity of the lab sample which we are received in the lab for analysis. Usually we are receiving various kind of sample in our lab of quantity in gram and from which we are taking only milligrams as test portions for analysis after grinding/homogenisation. While taking a small test portion from a larger quantity of lab sample, it should be a true representation of the lab sample. Here, if we are not ensuring proper homogeneity of the lab sample, there are chances, we will be reporting an incorrect result wherein we may be claiming a limit of detection at 0.1% or 0.01%.  So, it is always adviceable to validate the sample homogenisation activity also.

In this aspect, I would like to share a document JRC technical report on guideline for sample preparation by European Commission, which will be useful. Some time, many of us might have seen this also, if not seen please refer the same.

Thank you Lijo on the sharing of this informative document.

Would you be able to share with us the sampling methods used at the port prior to submission of the smaples for GMO analysis?

Thanks

Thanks Dina for this online forum on sharing technicalities on sample preparation. As the sample preparation including homogenization or grinding is the key step in LMO testing, which may affect the final reporting results, so sampling and grinding are crucial factors. Thanks Lijo for sharing the EURL document on sample grinding.

We highly appreciate if more discussions on sampling strategies may be focused in upcoming forums, as in an LMO testing laboratory, a small part of the bulk sample is coming for testing, and we must ensure that it must be true representative of sample.

For sample preparation, LOD of the sample must also be considered along with the LOD of method to report LMO test results.

Best regards.

The discussion is becoming very interesting, details of sharing of practical experiences and knowledge on sample preparation from different matrices. The EU document shared by Dr. Lijo is very informative.
ISO 24333:2009(E), Cereals and cereal products-Sampling is another document which dicusses about different strategies for sample preparation.
There are another documents on Sampling for the Detection of Biotech Grains, October 2000 and Codex samplling guidelines which are relevant.
As before sample preparation, how to draw a sample is also important. So the attached documents give insight on sampling strategies from different matrices.

Thank you Dr. Gurinder for the attached documents; indeed the sampling step is crucial to obtain reliable and consistent results. Suitable sampling for raw materials, primary ingredients and complex food products should be discussed. Please find attached documents related to sampling strategies adopted by the EU and FAO. Furthermore, i have attached the ISTA rules for seeds sampling, maybe it could be helpful.

Thanks Joe for very usefuk guidelines and documents on sampling.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF JOE SAID
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Dear Forum Participants,
Many thanks to everyone who has posted their comments on this forum so far.

We are glad to see that there is a lively discussion on this topic. I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that this discussion will be closing soon and urge everyone to make their final remarks or post additional resources before the closing of the discussion.

Once again we would like to thank all the participants for their engagement.

Kindest regards,
Joe