IJCA Vol 4 Issue 1 - Flipbook - Page 55
2025 | Volume 4, Issue 1
55
Impact of ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation on Food Safety:
Arsenic Speciation and Quality Control of Maize
By Diego Alejandro Uribe Polo, Ivette Zarate F., Víctor Valverde, Solange Henriquez, and Melba Huerta
DOI: 10.55459/IJCA/v4i1/DU.IZ.VV.SH.MH
-ABSTRACTThis article analyzes how ISO/IEC
17025 accreditation improves the
validity and reliability of results in
arsenic speciation in maize, which
positively impacts food safety
and contributes to the protection
of public health. It seeks to
highlight the importance of having
standardized procedures and
verified methods, especially when
arsenic detection limits are at trace
level.
Overview
Arsenic, a toxic contaminant present in agricultural soils, affects essential
crops such as corn. Differentiating its various chemical forms—inorganic
arsenic (As(III) and As(V)) and organic arsenic (monomethylarsonic acid
[MMA] and dimethylarsinic acid [DMA])—is crucial for assessing public
health risks. Arsenic intake in high concentrations can cause serious effects
on human health, including gastrointestinal irritation, decreased production
of red and white blood cells, and various types of cancer (Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry, 2007).
Maize, the world's highest produced cereal, provides 15% to 20% of global
protein and calorie intake to more than 200 million people in regions such as
Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. These areas have
been identi昀椀ed as arsenic-contaminated (Rosas et al., 2015). Factors such
Keywords: Food Safety, Arsenic Speciation, as soil pH, organic matter content, and certain elements in昀氀uence arsenic’s
ISO/IEC 17025, Maize Contamination,
bioavailability, affecting its accumulation in edible parts of crops (Nawrocka
Analytical Chemistry, ICP-MS, Laboratory
et al., 2022). (See Table 1.)
Accreditation, Public Health, HPLC, Trace
Analysis
Table 1: Global maize production and end uses. Displays total production and
key consumption categories (e.g., food and feed), providing context for the
significance of arsenic contamination in a widely consumed staple crop.
Ensuring accurate and reliable analyses of arsenic speciation in maize is
essential to assess and manage the associated risks. In this context, ISO/
IEC 17025 accreditation has a fundamental role in ensuring the technical
competence of laboratories and the validity of the results obtained.
Importance of Arsenic Speciation in Maize
Speciation of arsenic is essential to assess the risks associated with
its presence in food. Inorganic arsenic, in its As(III) and As(V) forms, is
approximately 100 times more toxic than its organic forms (MMA and
