Method development

The development of new analytical methods to be able to detect the large variety of relevant substances and to monitor compliance with new legislation is an important task for RIKILT. It is also necessary to be able to quickly develop measurement methods if new and potentially hazardous substances appear in the food chain.

The development of methods by RIKILT can include the following:

• methods for quickly detecting the presence of undesirable substances in large numbers of samples (screening methods)• methods for chemically profiling samples;
• bioassays for identifying substances based on their effect;
• methods for detecting/confirming extremely low concentrations of hazardous substances in foodstuffs and feeds;
• methods for detecting and confirming specific proteins, such as undesirable additives and allergens as well as specific DNA sequences,
• such as those present in GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and for confirming the specific animal (species) origin of animal meal;
• new technologies such as:
• - metabolomics;
• - genomics;
• - informatics/bioinformatics;
• methods for authenticity of foods.