On Sept. 26 to 27, 2013, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) will host its third workshop on Economically-Motivated Adulteration of Food Ingredients and Dietary Supplements, at its headquarters in Rockville, Md.

Adulteration of food ingredients and dietary supplements is an ongoing issue for manufacturers and consumers alike, as more ingredients are sourced globally and new, improved tests and techniques to detect adulteration are developed. The extent of adulteration, the emergence of promising detection techniques, and the role that quality standards can play in assisting industry and protecting consumers are among areas of focus for the workshop, which will be cosponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the Natural Products Association (NPA) and the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA).

Listen directly from workshop speakers, Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Markus Lipp, Ph.D. (USP), about why these workshops are important for both the food ingredients and dietary supplements industries. Other speakers will include representatives from the FDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Health Canada, academia and contract laboratories, as well as the Chinese National Center for Food Safety and Risk Assessment and industry representatives, including General Mills, Kraft Foods and Nestlé.

“In the food and dietary supplement industries, manufacturers are constantly concerned about the quality of their ingredients and products, which are valued by consumers for their purported nutrition, health benefits, flavors or other characteristics,” said Gabriel Giancaspro, Ph.D., vice president for foods, dietary supplements and herbal medicines at USP. “As supply chains become more globalized, high-valued ingredients become constant targets for adulteration. This workshop will explore how public standards can help ensure the authenticity of such ingredients and serve all stakeholders in protecting the supply chain. This is an opportunity to provide an open forum for discussion of the latest technologies used to keep the foods and dietary supplements free from adulterants in this country and abroad.”

Among the workshop highlights are modern methods of analysis and techniques for detecting adulterants in foods and dietary supplements; an overview of the compendial role in preventing and deterring adulteration of food ingredients and dietary supplements, using a combination of  carefully designed documentary standards and appropriate reference materials; recent trends in spectroscopy and genetic methods to trace and detect adulteration; and an overview of how other regions in the world are trying to deter adulteration.

A pre-workshop Pharmacopeial Education course on how to effectively use the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) will be offered by USP before the workshop on September 25, 2013. Included in the course curriculum are overviews on how FCC standards are developed and how to participate in the standards-setting process via the FCC Forum, USP’s free, online resource that gives FCC users a chance to review and comment on proposed changes to the compendium.

For more information and to register to the workshop and to the pre-workshop FCC course, please visit uspgo.to/food-ds-workshop.