26
January 2015

Michael Walker visits Hong Kong Accreditation Service

Michael Walker, Consultant to the Government Chemist at LGC, recently visited Hong Kong to work for a week with the Hong Kong Accreditation Service, HKAS, and the Hong Kong Government Laboratory, and participated in several technical events.

The first was a one-day meeting for staff from Hong Kong labs on Food Testing, Quality Assurance and Method Validation. Michael spoke on current developments in European regulatory controls and testing methodologies for food safety and also contributed a session outlining common quality assurance practices for analytical chemistry. The audience of around 60 also heard from scientists from HKAS on calculation of measurement uncertainty and the use of reference materials and from Hong Kong Government Laboratory staff on testing methods for edible oil, in the wake of the ‘gutter oil’ scandals, and on method validation and verification.
 
The following day Michael took part in a proteomics seminar at the Government Laboratory, where he discussed food allergy and the challenges of measuring allergen proteins, complementing Brett Phinney, Director of the Proteomics core facility at the University of California Davis Genome Center who spoke on ‘Human Hair and Space Mice, two diverse proteomic projects’.
 
Michael said of the visit, “Supporting colleagues in Hong Kong to foster protection of the global food chain is always a pleasure. The high scientific standards of HKAS and the HK Government Laboratory are matched by a very friendly and accommodating outlook.   These seminars were the latest example of LGC’s close working relationship with Hong Kong’s Government Laboratory”.