The quality of analytical data can be challenged by sample complexity, which leads to difficulties in extraction of the components from a matrix, isolation from other extractable components, and determination of the quantity of the components present. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers a variety of tools for evaluation of accuracy in food and dietary supplement analysis. NIST provides reference materials (RMs) in a variety of forms that can be used in method development, method validation, and quality control. RMs, in the form of calibration solutions, botanical raw materials, botanical extracts, and finished products, can be used to ensure accuracy in the determination of nutrients, botanical markers, and undesirable contaminants toward the goals of accurate labeling, product efficacy, and safety. Since the 1990s, NIST has offered matrix-based food RMs as tools for method development and validation, and currently available materials include peanut butter, meat homogenate, breakfast cereal, infant formula, egg powder, and baking chocolate, among others. Developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health-Office of Dietary Supplements (NIH-ODS), dietary supplement RMs are currently available for Ginkgo biloba, green tea, Vaccinium berries, soy, St. John’s wort, fish oils, and multivitamin tablets, among others; many more RMs are in preparation. NIST and NIH also coordinate the Dietary Supplements Laboratory Quality Assurance Program (DSQAP), which has been assisting laboratories in making better measurements since 2007. In this free program, registered laboratories test food and dietary supplement samples and submit results in exchange for information about their performance relative to other participating laboratories as well as relative to the “true” composition of the sample. The DSQAP is an interactive program in which NIST provides feedback regarding potential sources of bias with the goal of improving laboratory performance. Collectively, these tools are intended to assist manufacturers interested in product quality, laboratories establishing the appropriateness of analytical methods, and clinicians performing efficacy studies to accurately evaluate the content of a food or dietary supplement product. Improved chemical characterization of foods and supplements translates directly to improved accuracy in databases for the composition of foods and dietary supplements.

NIST Tools for analysis of foods & dietary supplements: Ensuring quality in nutrient databases

254th National Meeting (2017)

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