Summary of U.S. National Committee Meeting August 22, 2003
Twenty-seven people attended the re-organizational meeting of the U.S. National Committee on Sugar Analysis. The attendance list is attached.
The meeting began with introductions and some history and background about the U.S. National Committee (USNC), its goals, its structure, and its association with ICUMSA.
Nomination of Officers.
New officers were nominated and elected. Their terms will extend to 2006:
Chair - Paul Caulkins, Imperial Sugar
Chair Elect - Steve Clarke, Florida Crystals Corp
Secretary/Treasurer - Mary An Godshall, SPRI
Immediate Past Chair - Gene Rearick, Amalgamated Research Inc.
Executive Committee
Pranee Turbush, Coca Cola
Donal Day, Audubon Sugar Institute
George Knapp, Amalgamated Sugar
Constitution and By Laws.
A committee consisting of Mary An Godshall and Gillian Eggleston was appointed to review the constitution and by laws, which have become outdated. The revised draft will be sent to the Executive Committee/Officers by e-mail, for their review, and then will be voted upon at the next meeting.
Review of Recommendations and Appointment of USNC Referees.
The ICUMSA recommendations from 2002 were reviewed for each subject, and at the same time USNC Referees were appointed. The name of each USNC Referee will also be submitted to the appropriate ICUMSA Referee to serve as an Associate Referee within the ICUMSA subject. Mary An will notify ICUMSA of these names. Areas of interest to the USNC were highlighted during the discussion, and recommendations to be made to ICUMSA from the U.S. were formulated.
Subject Review
GSl, Raw Sugar
The USNC Referee is Walter Altenburg, New York Sugar Trade Lab
Associate Referees: Pete Clements, U.S. Customs, Savannah Lab
Jeff Robinson, Domino, Baltimore (tentative, pending his accepting)
The item of greatest interest was to have a rapid, accurate starch method. A starch subcommittee consisting of Tere Johnson and Mary An Godshall was formed, with the goal of doing a local (US only) collaborative study on starch in raw sugar. The SPRI rapid starch method will be tested. Eight people volunteered to participate.
GS2, Refined Sugar
The USNC Referee is Paul Caulkins, Imperial Sugar
Associate Referees: Pranee Turbush, Coca Cola
Nick Rimedio, Okeelanta
Discussion: The International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT) has begun to standardize and harmonize sucrose methods and is going to produce a manual of methods that can be used by all the beverage manufacturers around the world that use sucrose. Whenever possible, they decided to adopt ICUMSA methods.
Recommendation: The USNC requests that ICUMSA recognize that there are issues regarding crop and process residues that are becoming more and more important ("they are not going away"), which include (a) pesticide screening in sugar; (b) questions about residual acrylamide analysis; (c) biocide residues.
GS3, Specialty Sugars
There is no USNC referee.
After a review of the existing ICUMSA color methods and the controversy surrounding the use of some of the methods, the USNC strongly agrees that any sugar with color greater than 65 ICU need pH adjustment for color analysis.
GS4, Molasses
Harb Singh, International Molasses, will be asked if he is interested in being the Referee.
GS5, Cane
The USNC Referee is Peter Rein, Audubon Sugar Institute.
Associate Referees: Tere Johnson, Sugar Cane Growers Coop of Florida
Benjamin Legendre, LSU Ag Center
Steve Clarke discussed how important the primary calibrations are for NIR analysis, a secondary method. Regarding ICUMSA recommendation #3, the USNC again reiterates its objection to the use of the term "NIR polarimetry" preferring instead, the unambiguous term "high-wavelength polarimetry."
GS6, Beet
There is no USNC referee.
GS7, Cane Sugar Processing
The USNC Referee is Steve Clarke, Florida Crystals Corp.
Associate Referee: Brian White, Audubon Sugar Institute
GS8, Beet Sugar Processing
The USNC Referee is Richard Reisig, Western Sugar Coop.
Associate Referees: Sam Samaraweera, American Crystal Sugar
Charlie Schmalz, Amalgamated Sugar Company
GS9, Sweeteners Other than Sucrose
There is no USNC referee. There is currently no interest in this subject within the membership of the USNC.
Subject 1 - Constitution and By Laws
The USNC Referee is Paul Caulkins, Imperial Sugar Company
Subject 2 - Oligosacchaides and Polysaccharides
The USNC Referee is Gillian Eggleston, SRRC/ARS/USDA
Associate Referees: Ron DeStefano, U.S. Sugar
Don Day, Audubon Sugar Institute
Marianne McKee, SPRI
Sara Moore, SPRI
Recommendation: All methods should be collaboratively tested, and methods should be reviewed by qualified individuals prior to testing.
Subject 3 - Methods Format and Collaborative Testing
The USNC and ICUMSA Referee is Mary An Godshall, SPRI
Associate Referee: Margaret Nemeth, Monsanto
Recommendations:
1. The USNC objects to methods of "no status" going into the ICUMSA methods book
2. Explore other ways of reviewing and accepting collaborative besides every four years at a full meeting of ICUSMA.
3. Put together a list of labs and their capabilities for future collaborative studies.
4. Include definitions in all methods. (Some methods do include these, but not all of them.)
Subject 4 - Density, Optical Rotation and Refractive Index
There is no USNC referee. A representative from an instrument manufacturer will be asked if there .is any interest.
Subject 5 - Dry Substance
The USNC Referee is George Knapp, Amalgamated Sugar Company.
Associate Referee: Richard Reisig, Western Sugar Coop.
There was a lot of discussion about this subject. It was mentioned that there is no good definition of dry substance in molasses and that by-products users/buyers are moving to Karl Fisher methods. The merits of moisture measurement vs loss on drying (lod) was discussed. George Knapp said that he is working on ERR measurements and find that it changes depending on the amount and type of bound moisture present. This is an important parameter that determines how sugar will store. Tere Johnson mentioned the old "Moisture Teller" that was used in cane mills for bagasse moisture. George Knapp said that water activity should be measured instead of moisture. The merits of the various moisture meters (lod instruments) was discussed. It was noted that ICUSMA does not have any official method using the rapid instrumental lod methods.
Recommendations:
1. Look at rapid moisture measuring instruments with the goal of eventually having an official method using these instruments.
2. Define dry substance.
Subject 6 - Indirect Methods of Analysis
The USNC Referee is Brian White, Audubon Sugar Institute
Associate Referees: Francisco Palau, Florida Crystals Corp.
Tere Johnson, Sugar Cane Growers Coop of Florida
Beverly Jacobson, American Crystal (pending acceptance)
Subject 7 - Color, Turbidity and Reflectance Measurement
The USNC Referee is Mary An Godshall, SPRI
Associate Referees: Paul Caulkins, Imperial Sugar Company
Marie Tanner, Pepsi Cola (pending her accepting)
Luis Bento, Audubon Sugar Institute
Ron Triche, SPRI
(Someone from Domino Sugar, to be recommended by Steve Clarke)
Steve Clarke mentioned that he had recently bought a Hunter Color Flex - LaB, and is just starting to look at what it can do. There was discussion about the Agtron instrument for reflectance measurement, which is used by various companies for brown sugar, but they are not standardized.
Recommendations:
1. Propose a collaborative test for turbidity by the ICUMSA color difference method.
2. Standardize and further study the NTU method for turbidity.
Subject 8/9 - Chromatographic Techniques for Sugars and Non-Sugars
The USNC Co-Referees are Marianne McKee and Sara Moore, SPRI
Associate Referees: Gillian Eggleston, SRRC/ARS/USDA
Brian White, Audubon Sugar Institute
Gene Rearick (pending his accepting)
Sam Samaraweera, Minn-Dak Farmers Coop
Recommendation:
Several members of the USNC could participate in anion and cation determinations if a collaborative study were to be organized.
Subject 10 - Enzymatic and Immunologic Methods
The USNC Referee is Donal Day, Audubon Sugar Institute
Associate Referees: Jim Rauh, Midland Research Laboratories
Jim Rauh presented a report on the Midland monoclonal antibody test for dextran, and volunteered to organize a collaborative test on the method.
Recommendation:
An international collaborative test for dextran by the monoclonal antibody method will be undertaken by Jim Rauh, with the backing of the USNC. The ICUMSA referee will be notified of this.
Subject 11 - No subject
Subject 12 - Microbiology
The USNC Referee is Indrani Samaraweera, American Crystal Sugar Co.
Associate Referee: Donal Day, Audubon Sugar Institute
Subject 13 - Reducing Sugars There is no USNC referee.
Subject 14 - Ash
There is no USNC referee.
A final topic: It was mentioned that there are currently no tests to determine if cane or beet has been genetically modified, and while there are currently no modified cane or beet plants on the market, it is a subject the USNC should maintain awareness about. Donal Day volunteered to keep up on this topic for the USNC.
The following voting delegates were selected for the ICUMSA meeting to be held in 2004:
Delegates:
Paul Caulkins
Steve Clarke
Mary An Godshall
Gillian Eggleston
Donal Day
George Knapp
Pranee Turbush
Alternates:
Next meeting.
The next meeting is tentatively scheduled in Baton Rouge at the ASSCT meeting in February 2004.
Attending the USNC Meeting on August 22, 2003
Paul Caulkins, Imperial Sugar Company
Margaret Chinn, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, New Orleans Laboratory
Steve Clarke, Florida Crystals Corp.
Donal Day, Audubon Sugar Institute
Ronald DeStefano, United States Sugar Corporation
Emmanuel Duffaut, SPRI
Gillian Eggleston, Southern Regional Research Center USDA
Robert Falgout, Midland Research Laboratories, Inc.
Mary An Godshall, SPRI
Rafael Gonzales, Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers
Tere Johnson, Sugar Cane Growers Coop of Florida
George Knapp, The Amalgamated Sugar Company, LLC
Marianne McKee, SPRI
Francisco Mendez, LaFourche Sugars LLC
Sara Moore, SPRI
Margaret Nemeth, Monsanto Regulatory Sciences
Mark Nittler, Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers
Franciso Palau, Florida Crystals Corp.
Anthony Parris, Iberia Sugar Coop
James S. Rauh, Midland Research Laboratories, Inc.
Peter Rein, Audubon Sugar Institute
Richard Reisig, Western Sugar Cooperative
Upasiri "Sam" Samaraweera, Minn-Dak Farmers Coop
Walter Simoneaux, Midland Research Laboratories, Inc.
Ronald Triche, SPRI
Pranee Turbush, The Coca-Cola Company
Brian White, Audubon Sugar Institute
United States National Committee on Sugar Analysis
1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd
New Orleans, LA, 70124
USA
