NONUSE AND MISINTERPRETATION OF CRMS - CAN THE SITUATION BE IMPROVED

A survey of 82 scientific papers on trace elements in foods found the use of Certified Reference Materials to be less than anticipated. Less than 50% of the papers reported use of CRMs. When used, the evaluatio n is usually very crude and provides the user with very little informa tion about his analytical performance. This is mainly due to lack of i nformation/communication between the producers of CRMs, the users and those writing guidelines for the use of CRMs. Several specific problem s are pointed out and remedies to improve the situation are described.