Questions on the Validation of Holistic Methods of Testing Organic Food Quality

ABSTRACT The regulation of organic production and processing focuses on process-related quality concepts rather than product oriented quality management. Therefore no standards exist that define the product oriented quality aspects of organic food. Methods such as the biocrystallization method seem to be able to classify organic products. Methods that are applied must reflect the history of the sample in growth and processing. These methods can be applied either for authentication or in relation to technical aspects (storage, processing steps) as well as human health. Each quality determination needs a question which will be answered from the laboratory method. The question needs to be specific enough and the method needs validation. Validation means testing if the method can answer the question or not. The process of validation is defined for analytical methods (single compound determination) in international norms such as the ISO 17025 for testing laboratories. The article describes how validation procedures can be applied to biocrystallization methods for quality tests of organic products.

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