To increase measurement accuracy, these Certified Reference Materials will be distributed to food labs.
Inmetro is making two new Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) for carbofurans and nitrofurans, ingredients that can jeopardize the consumers’ health. Carbofuran is part of the carbamate family and is one of the most toxic pesticides of them all. It is used to control bugs of several types of crops. As for nitrofurans, these are veterinary drugs made to treat infections in the gastro-intestinal tract of pigs and birds.
In a lab, the CRM (Certified Reference Material) is the main quality standard of the analytic routine. It allows us to verify the measurement accuracy and to confirm result trustworthiness. The carbofuran and nitrofuran hydrogen phthalate CRMs were produced by the Organic Analysis Lab (Labor) of the Chemical and Thermal Metrology Department (Dimqt).
As explained by Eliane Rego, Inmetro’s researcher, “carbofuran is a systemic insecticide, that is, the plant absorbs it through its roots and, then, the whole plant reaches insecticide concentrations. The national availability of these pesticide calibration solution CRMs increases measurement trustworthiness, avoiding CMR importation costs. As for the nitrofurans, these are veterinary drugs, with carcinogenic and mutagenic characteristics, already added to the regulations of the European Union and other countries as forbidden substances.
How do the CRMs work?
Commonly used by food labs, the Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) are used to validate their methods and for quality assurance, both by the industry and by regulation and supervision departments. In a lab, they are main standards of analytic routine and help us determine if the measurement result trustworthiness must be increased. It allows us to calibrate measurement systems, verify measurement accuracy, and make sure the results can be tracked.
The ABNT ISO Guide 30:2016 characterizes CRMs as a metrologically valid procedure for one or more specified properties, accompanied by a certificate that informs the value of said property, the association of its uncertainty, and a declaration of metrological traceability.
Made available by Inmetro, the CRMs definitely contribute to the society by increasing measurement result trustworthiness, having the goal of providing the labs with traceability to calibrate tools, attribute property value to other materials, validate measurement methods, and assure process quality, essential to metrological trustworthiness and safety.
We still do not have reference materials for every chemical analysis performed in the labs, since these materials are available only for analytic techniques frequently employed and for a very small number of matrices. These materials are expensive, and the cost of the process is increased due to the certification steps, which are long and costly. We need a detailed experimental plan to produce CRMs, including the supply of a sufficient amount of material to perform every study inherent to them.
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