Harmonisation and Standardisation in the Field of Next Generation Sequencing (NG

Tender description

Harmonisation and Standardisation in the Field of Next Generation Sequencing (NG Defra’s Food Authenticity Research Programme is at the forefront of applying cutting edge technology to develop fit for purpose analytical testing methods to verify food labelling and composition to support the enforcement of food law. Research developed under the programme helps to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the UKs food supply chain, ensuring it remains resilient to food fraud, maintaining and improving consumer confidence. A powerful emerging technology, starting to be applied by a number of organisations and laboratories for food authenticity investigation, is NGS or High Throughput Sequencing (HTS). It has the potential to deliver a step-change in how food standards testing is undertaken by allowing high-throughput, non-targeted identification of food ingredients. The growing application of NGS for food authenticity investigation has highlighted a need to develop standards and harmonise approaches for application in a food setting to ensure methods are fit for purpose, are validated in a harmonised way and that deliver results that can be interpreted with confidence to enable effective use for food authenticity analysis. There are a number of NGS platforms now available for HTS, using a variety of different chemistries and additional sequencing technologies are still being developed (Defra project FA0160). As a result, there is a degree of variability in method performance and validation approaches, making it difficult to compare results. Working towards agreed performance targets in this field will enable results generated in different labs and on different platforms to be compared and findings to be interpreted with confidence. Aims The requirement is for the development of performance target standards and best practice advice for the application of NGS for food authenticity testing (with a focus on metabarcoding approaches) to improve the robustness of NGS methods as a tool to support food analysis and food law enforcement. Defra is looking to commission a project to address the following aims: 1) To establish suitable minimum performance criteria for qualitative NGS metabarcoding approaches that can be applied across different food matrices and platforms. To develop guidelines/advice as necessary to support understanding and application of the criteria and wider best practice in order to ensure NGS approaches are applied to food authenticity testing in a way which is fit for purpose 2) To demonstrate application of the criteria and guidelines in a laboratory setting through validation of a candidate NGS metabarcoding method for food authenticity analysis. Tenderers are invited to propose a work plan in line with the aims and objectives set out in the specification, the Authority will also welcome innovative approaches to addressing the research question which would achieve the same outcome. It must build upon and be in line with existing and recent previous work in this area, some of which is detailed below. Research Questions Defra is seeking analytical expertise to establish standards and guidance that will benefit the analytical community through facilitating harmonised development and validation of qualitative NGS methods for food authenticity analysis. The Authority anticipates demonstration that the performance targets and guidance developed are fit for purpose through their application in practice as part of this project.