Category Archives: North American Chemical Workshop

Pittcon News and Notes

By Mike Gottschalk

The 68th Pittcon International for 2018 was hosted in Orlando, Florida which provided a welcome respite from February’s wintery embrace to many a northerner. Beside the welcoming venue, the programs and exhibitors continue to contribute to the leading exhibition for laboratory science and new technology in food safety, life science and emerging markets.

Pickering Laboratories presented the latest method advances in our Post-Column Applications and received significant interest in our recently introduced Product Test Solutions from a diverse audience of conference attendees.

New from Pickering for Pittcon this year was our post-column application for Cannabinoids Analysis in Cannabis Plants and Edibles, Amino Acid Analysis in Foods and Supplements as well as several new formulations of Product Testing Solutions.

We are always surprised at the variety of companies interested in our product testing solutions: credit card manufacturers, tobacco companies, electronics manufacturers, surgical instrumentation companies, materials scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and makers of musical instruments to name a few. These different industries have all found the quality and consistency of Pickering’s product testing solutions to offer the reliability they need for performing product development and ongoing quality assurance testing.

To add to the excitement of our new products, we held daily raffles for an Apple Watch and two Bose Soundsport Pulse headphones. Congratulations to our three winners!

Not only were the winners of the raffle prizes excited, but passersby generated quite a buzz checking out this year’s playful Pickering promotional handouts, including: Fidget Spinners, Emoji Pens, Lab Rulers and Workout Towels. We enjoyed engaging with our visitors and we appreciated those who stopped to learn more about what Pickering Labs offers!

Thank you for visiting our booth at Pittcon!  And if you missed us, our next show is the North American Chemical Residue Workshop (NACRW) in Naples, Florida from July 22 through 25, where you can be sure to see myself and Sareeta Nerkar and pick up some application notes (or another emoji pen)!

 

North American Chemical Residue Workshop (NACRW)

NACRWThe North American Chemical Residue Workshop (NACRW), formerly the Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop, was held in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida.  For the 52nd year, professionals met to discuss the latest trends in analysis of pesticides, veterinary drug and other chemical residues.  Matrices of interest included food, animal feed and environmental samples, and everyone came to learn and share the latest in residue analysis.

This year, the big topic was the pending testing regulations for pesticides in cannabis.  The United States now has 33 states that have legalized either medical marijuana or recreational marijuana, and many of these states are moving towards the adoption of these new regulations.  Along with this increasing availability of cannabis products comes the need for regulation and assurance of safety from pesticides residues.  Some states are modeling the regulations closely to tobacco standards, while other states have chosen alternative paths towards formulating their regulations.

Glyphosate has been in the news lately because glyphosate residue is showing up in finished food products.  In addition, European testing has found glyphosate in drinking water and the urine of many citizens.  Consider that the World Health Organization (WHO) recently decided to classify glyphosate as a probable carcinogen and the increasing interest in glyphosate testing becomes even more understandable.  

At the NACRW conference, there was considerable interest in Pickering Labs’ method for glyphosate analysis because it is robust, established and economical.  Our poster actually generated so much interest that we needed to reprint more application handouts at the hotel copy room!  That’s a nice marketing emergency to have!

Glyphosate Analysis in Soy Beans, Corn and Sunflower Seeds