feed for fish and fish as food
Stepping down after more than 30 years’ service for NMKLSince 1977 Kåre Julshamn has been involved in the establishment of standardised and quality assured food analysis methods through the Nordic Committee on Food Analysis (NMKL). This has resulted in a comprehensive knowledge of the topic. 14.10.09
In August 2009 Julshamn formally stepped down as chairman of NMKL’s Chemistry Subcommittee. He had then been involved in selecting, validating, approving and publishing analytical methods for food stuffs for more than 30 years as a member of the Chemistry Subcommittee and for 24 years as its chairman. The last analytical method for which Julshamn was the scientific referee was approved in 2008 and is related to the determination of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and lead in food products (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). - The EU was interested in establishing a method for measuring the level of these metals in food stuffs, partly due to already established upper limits for these metals, apart from arsenic, says Julshamn. Julshamn is Head of Research at the Surveillance research programme at the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES). The approved methods applied by NMKL have been externally validated and thus provide optimal quality assurance. They are available to both private and public laboratories in Norway and abroad and thus enable food authorities, among others, to provide uniform, predictable and reliable analytical results across the frontiers.  Caption: Kåre Julshamn in front of an ICPMS. Photo: NIFES. Great involvementBoth as a researcher at NIFES for 37 years and through his work for NMKL, Julshamn has had the opportunity to be involved in his primary area of interest, chemical analysis methods in foodstuffs and particularly the determination of elements. - It all started in 1975 when I published an analytical method related to heavy metals in seafood. This paved the way for my membership, in 1977, of a working group set up by NMKL to determine the presence of metals in food products, says Julshamn, adding: - NIFES early saw the need for standardised food analyses in the laboratory, not least in view of the increasing requirements for quality assured methods from the State Food Inspectorate (SNT), the forerunner of today’s Norwegian Food Safety Authority. Since then, a number of methods developed at NIFES have been externally validated under the direction of NMKL and are currently NMKL methods. This applies to the determination of arsenic, mercury, calcium, magnesium and sodium in foodstuffs, as well as the method used to determine the presence of metals which was approved in 2008.
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