The standards developer is calling on proposals for ingredients before a deadline of April 14, 2006. The Task Force meeting, scheduled to coincide with the upcoming Supple Side East tradeshow in New Jersey, will decide on the rankings for the new proposals.
Establishing standards for the supplements and ingredients industry is seen as a way to boost consumer confidence without the need for heavy-handed regulation from the government. AOAC's vision is that there be worldwide confidence in analytical results.
The AOAC have called on interested parties to justify why these ingredients are in need of validated methods, and why the methods are of the highest priority.
"Dietary supplement ingredients are ranked in order of priority for methods validation, and source of funding is a major driving factor in decisions.
Other criteria for ranking ingredients include the relative market share of the ingredient, the general availability of methods from which to select a method, any NIH clinical trials planned or underway requiring a method to characterize the material used in the trial, and any ingredient safety concerns," said the AOAC in a statement.
Over 75 ingredients have been prioritized, say the AOAC, with highest need for validated methods been given to bitter orange, black cohosh, L-carnitine, vitamins B1, B6, and B12. The 'ingredients in process' top priorities are listed as chondroitin sulfate, St John's wort, glucosamine and vitamin E.
The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has already submitted its list for consideration at the May meeting, and has identified Eleuthro root, Hoodia gordonii, skullcap herb, English plantain leaf, black cohosh root, and slippery elm bark.
Thirteen ingredients are yet to be ranked, including vitamins C and D, cinnamon and flax seed plant and animal lignans, while a further ten ingredients in process are awaiting ranking.
Once the ingredients have been ranked, the top priorities will be pursued in order to establish standard methods.
The first part of AOAC's methods process is to ask industry to submit information on the methods it is using. Following this step, a single lab validation is done to establish whether the method works on various materials on the market. A multi-lab collaboration then checks whether this method can be reproduced at different centers.
More information is available from the AOAC website.