Government chemist has statutory roles and is appointed by the minister to advise government, industry and others on the dependencies between analytical chemistry, policy, standards and regulation
It is widely estimated that 25% of the world's food crops are contaminated by moulds that can produce toxic or cancer-causing substances.
Toxins produced by the mould aspergillus, known as aflatoxins, are of particular concern.
In the UK, port health authorities have front-line responsibility for official controls on the safety of food products imported into the UK.
However, the diversity of imported products continually highlights new areas of uncertainty relating to the analytical methods employed, particularly because measurements of aflatoxins, which are hazardous even at trace concentrations, might be masked or skewed by the bulk ingredients.
The UK government chemist can be asked to step in if the test results are questioned.
In 2007, the 21 samples receiving this top-level scrutiny included 13 submitted for the determination of aflatoxins: varieties of nuts, chillies, figs, and compound products, namely pistachio nougat and peanut bites.
Innovative approaches were needed to apply statutory concentration limits for aflatoxins in nuts to the more complex products: for example, extraction techniques were modified to cope with the high sugar content.
In all cases completed in 2007, the government chemist confirmed the results of the official control laboratory, and the food consignment was re-exported.
LGC, as the designated national measurement institute for chemical and bioanalysis, coordinates the government chemist's innovation base and science and technology programme at Teddington, Middlesex, UK.
