The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has announced a call for participation in the ANSI-accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) for International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 34, Food products, and ISO TC 34 Subcommittee (SC) 16, Horizontal Methods for Molecular Biomarker Analysis. Both ISO TC 34 and SC 16 are actively developing international standards, and all U.S. stakeholder organizations in relevant fields and industries are strongly encouraged to get involved. ISO TC 34 is responsible for the development of International Standards on topics connected to food and feed products. The technical committee's work covers food product specifications, requirements for food packaging, food and feed safety, and related quality management, along with other activities related to the production, distribution, and consumption of human and animal foodstuffs. ISO TC 34 SC 16 oversees the development of ISO standards on biomarker testing methods in connection with foods, animal feeds, seeds, and other related goods. The scope of the subcommittee includes detection of plant pathogens and methodology for proteins and nucleic acids, among other areas of interest.
As the U.S. member body to ISO, ANSI accredits U.S. TAGs to develop and transmit U.S. positions on ISO technical activities. ANSI member the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) serves as the ANSI-accredited administrator of the U.S. TAG to ISO TC 34 and SC 16. The U.S. holds the secretariat of SC 16 and has delegated it to AOCS; the U.S.'s Dr. Michael Sussman serves as the subcommittee's chair.
To learn more about ISO TC 34 and SC 16 and their associated TAGs, or to express interest in joining one of both of the TAGs, please email Brittany Helbling, AOCS technical specialist, at [email protected].