European Union Community Bureau Reference

The organizer of an interlaboratory study to assign a quantity value to a reference material is usually a national or international certifying authority, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (United Nations), the Community Bureau of Reference (European Union), or a national measurement institute. 

The IUPAC/SCI/NPL programme on surface area standards examined a number of carbon blacks, activated charcoals, and silicas, and in the resulting publication [33] the results obtained in a number of laboratories were compared. As a result, two carbon blacks and two silicas lacking microporosity were accepted as standards. A major conclusion of this work, namely that outgassing conditions determine results obtained with high-area solids, was reinforced by the unsuccessful attempts made by the European Union s Community Bureau of Reference to obtain reproducible results with silica gels intended as reference standards [8e]. 

The diversity and complexity of the available approaches has identified the major difficulties associated with producing suitable guidelines that would allow comparisons between different laboratories and different countries in assessing metal mobility in the soil environment. This led to the development of single and sequential extraction procedures by the Standards, Materials and Testing (SM T - formerly the (European) Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) Programme of the European Union (1987)). Single extractants evaluated included 0.05 moll-1 EDTA, 0.43 moll-1 acetic acid, and 1 moll-1 ammonium acetate at pH 7. 

Quevauviller P (1996) Atomic spectrometry hyphenated to chromatography for elemental speciation Performance assessment within the standards, measurements and testing programme (Community Bureau of Reference) of the European Union. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 11 1225—1231. 

Quality control is of the utmost importance in the case of mineral analyses because of the low concentrations of the elements normally found in foods and the ubiquitous presence of significant levels of many of them in the environment. In addition to the standard techniques of working in a clean laboratory to reduce the potential for accidental contamination to a minimum, it is essential that procedures be validated and results checked against appropriate certified reference materials (CRMs). CRMs for most of the trace and other minerals of interest in foods are available from international reference centers such as the Community Bureau of Reference of the European Union, the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States, and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. 

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