THE US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATIONS SELECTION AND VALIDATION OF TESTS FOR FOODBORNE MICROBES AND MICROBIAL TOXINS

To accomplish its mission in regulating the safety of the national foo d supply, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must have testing methods that cart be defended in a court of law. These methods must, a t minimum, be reproducible. Whenever possible, the methods are validat ed according to procedures recommended by such international organizat ions as the AOAC INTERNATIONAL, the International Organization for Sta ndardization (ISO) and the International Dairy Federation (IDF/FIL). W henever it is not possible to validate a method fully prior to its use , FDA relies on the peer-reviewed scientific literature and the result s of its own peer-reviewed research. FDA publishes its preferred metho ds to test foods for microbial pathogens and toxins in the FDA Bacteri ological Analytical Manual (BAM), currently in its 8th edition (1995) and issued by AOAC INTERNATIONAL.