At the September 2007 AOAC International meeting in Anaheim, California there was a gathering of individuals interested in chemical contaminants and residues in food. This was the initial meeting of the Chemical Contaminants and Residues in Food Community. A subgroup of a few individuals from the community who were interested in metals (toxic and nutritional elements as well as the chemical form (i.e., species) of these elements) met to begin prioritizing analytical method needs. Subsequent to the meeting, others joined the subgroup to participate in accomplishing the tasks of the Metals Subgroup.

The Metals Subgroup will focus on addressing the needs of the Chemical Contaminants and Residues in Food Community for analytical methods to determine the levels of chemical elements in foods. The scope will include toxic and nutritional elements as well as the chemical form (species) of these elements.

The Metals Subgroup seeks members to contribute their insight, knowledge, experience, and/or laboratory services. Ideally, the Metals Subgroup would have a diverse membership including global representatives from all levels of government (e.g., national, supranational, state, provincial, county, city), industry (e.g., food producers, food processors, food distributors, food importers, food exporters, food trade associations), private laboratories, analytical equipment/instrument vendors, academia, non-government organizations and consumer organizations. Members would be expected to work together to develop analytical standards of excellence in the area of elemental analysis.

The Metals Subgroup will seek analytical method needs as perceived by the members and other identified stakeholders, prioritize the needs, establish method performance criteria for the needed methods, and then work to provide evidence of a valid method. Existing methods will be considered or certain aspects of existing methods will be used to develop a method that meets established method performance criteria. Voluntary laboratory experimentation will be sought from Metals Subgroup members to provide assistance on method development, single laboratory validation and multilaborary validation.