Analyst performance with aflatoxin methods as determined from AOCS Smalley Check Sample Program: short-term and long-term views.

The International Smalley Aflatoxin Check Sample Program of the American Oil Chemists' Society has offered check sample series for aflatoxins in peanut meal, cottonseed meal, and corn meal since 1976, and an aflatoxin M in raw milk series since 1980. This paper provides the computed mean of all analysts' results and between-laboratory precision for each of the samples in each of the check sample series distributed in 1980-81 and 1981-82. In addition, a comparison is made of the relative measurement and analytical accuracy of those analysts who have participated in the peanut meal series for at least 4 years and in the cottonseed and corn meal series since their inception (6 years). For this comparison, each analyst's result for each sample was calculated as a percent of the mean for all analysts for that sample; these values were then averaged for each analyst over all the meal samples in all the series for each meal type in which the analyst had participated, to obtain an overall measure of analytical accuracy. A similar calculation was made using the reported results for the defined solution of aflatoxins included in each series, to obtain an overall measure of measurement accuracy. An evaluation of the meal series results for the past 2 seasons shows an overall within-laboratory precision in the range reported for the collaborative studies by which the methods were validated; the between-laboratory precision, although improved over past years, is still far from the collaborative study range. The precision data for the aflatoxin solution included in each series indicate this bias could be related, in large part, to the reference standards used.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)