Discipline D Track 3: Method Development and Method Validation Project Summary The FDA’s utilization of chemical analysis is critical to the agency’s ability to protect the U.S. food supply from unsafe chemical contamination. There are continuing needs for new analytical methods and techniques to handle the challenges involved with new food matrices and to make effective use of new and more efficient analytical technology. The purpose of this project is to provide funding for preliminary investigations into new analytical approaches, method extensions to new food matrices, and multi-laboratory research studies. The Toxicology Section of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory (CAHFS) has extensive experience in method development and extension projects and evaluation of new technologies. The nature of veterinary analytical toxicology is such that there are constant requirements for new methods to be developed. Some of these methods are required to handle single events of toxicosis in animals while others are designed to become routine methods for long-term use. The ability to execute such development projects is integral to the Section’s mission of assuring the health of agricultural animals and the safety of their feeds in California. The Section maintains a variety of different types of instrumentation allowing for flexibility in analyte detection and the ability to analyze a wide variety of matrix types. CAHFS personnel are highly experienced in handling many types of method development projects. The section has worked collaboratively with the FDA to develop and validate a number of methods in the past and has had notable success in rapid method development in response to emergencies in the food supply. As part of this project, CAHFS has proposed a specific method development project for each of the five years covered by the grant. The methods proposed are intended to increase our ability to detect human food and animal feed contamination and prevent those commodities from injuring humans or animals. In summary, funding from this grant will allow CAHFS to continue to serve as a valued partner to the FDA in the exploration and development of new analytical chemistry methods and technologies.