Certified reference materials as a quality tool in food control: much used - often misused - sometimes abused

Certified reference materials (CRMs) are important tools in the quality control of food analyses. There are, however, many ways in which CRMs can be abused and misused. It can be due to ignorance, as well as to overuse of expensive materials. The major drawback of CRMs is probably that the analyst knows the level of the analyte. The statistical evaluation of CRM results in reports and publications is often limited to a comparison between the found and the certified levels, which yields little, and sometimes erroneous, information. Recoveries based on CRMs often give a picture that is far too bright, with little consideration of uncertainties. The way the use of CRMs is described in most scientific journals is often very crude and shows that CRMs are seldom used to their full capacity. The objective of this paper is to try to summarise the ways in which a CRM can be misused and thereby put into focus how to make better use of such materials. It also gives examples on how to evaluate CRMs, using a procedure that was recently introduced by the Nordic Committee on Food Analysis.