AOAC INTERNATIONAL is a 120 year-old not-for-profit scientific association committed to worldwide confidence in analytical results. In fact, “worldwide confidence in analytical results” is AOAC’s vision.

To attain the vision, AOAC serves the communities of analytical sciences by providing the tools and processes necessary for community stakeholders to collaborate and, through consensus building, develop fit-for-purpose methods and services for assuring quality measurements. This is AOAC’s mission.

Leveraging the knowledge, experience, and expertise of more than 3,700 of its members with one-third of its members outside the US, AOAC has developed many competencies, programs, and a proven model to achieve its mission and vision and bring value to the analytical communities that AOAC serves. What do we mean by an AOAC community?

An AOAC community is a group of analytical scientists in a specific area who share AOAC’s vision of worldwide confidence in analytical results and who are brought together by a leader or “champion” to do together what they cannot do alone. Representatives of a community include scientific experts from various government agencies, industry, trade associations, international organizations, and academia. Following a proven AOAC model, stakeholders of a community work through consensus to prioritize methods needs, establish performance criteria for the methodology, and drive the development and validation of the best and most needed methods. The validation is conducted according to established and internationally recognized AOAC validation guidelines and this fact and recognition brings tremendous value to those who come to AOAC to validate methods. With 120 years of methods validation experience, we know how to do validation and have the ability to facilitate the development and approval of methods that promote trust and confidence in analytical results, thereby facilitating and promoting interstate and international trade, public trust in manufacturers’ products, and public safety and security.

Because confidence in analytical results also depends on other complementary tools, the community may opt to have AOAC qualify the laboratories doing the analyses, train the analysts, and provide proficiency testing.

Under the auspices of AOAC INTERNATIONAL, communities have the ability for open communications and decision making based on consensus, sharing of resources both financial and expertise, preventing duplication of efforts, and validating methods that are of outmost importance to the communities. The methods that result from the communities’ work are accepted internationally and are used by regulatory and industry scientists alike for many purposes including public health and safety, regulation, trade, monitoring, and quality control. AOAC has a number of communities in various stages of development including food safety and security, agricultural materials, marine and freshwater toxins, dietary supplements, food allergens, and disinfectants.