Throughout April, the SPECTRA project pursued an active programme of engagement with industry partners, analytical laboratories and regulatory bodies, building the connections between research excellence and real-world application that are central to the project’s impact strategy.
SGS Greece: Method Validation in Mass Spectrometry
On 25 April, Prof. Dimitra Lambropoulou visited SGS Greece, one of the world’s leading testing, inspection and certification companies, for a productive exchange with Afroditi Chioti, Aggeliki Maliogka and their colleagues. Discussions focused on method validation strategies in mass spectrometry, covering analytical performance, quality assurance and alignment with international standards. The meeting highlighted the importance of strong collaboration between academic research and industrial analytical laboratories in ensuring that the methods developed within projects like SPECTRA are robust, reliable and fit for deployment in regulatory and commercial contexts.
Interfind Honey Testing Laboratory: Food Authenticity and IRMS
A visit to the Interfind Honey Testing Laboratory brought Prof. Lambropoulou together with Anastasia Koltsakidou, Charalambos Tourtoglou, Kleomenis Tsimpos and Andromachi Akrivopoulou for an in-depth discussion on honey adulteration and the role of advanced analytical methodologies in ensuring product integrity. The conversation centred on Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) as a tool for detecting the addition of exogenous sugars and verifying the botanical and geographical origin of honey, both areas where SPECTRA’s expertise in stable isotope analysis is directly applicable.
The discussion also addressed the increasing complexity of adulteration practices, the need for harmonised analytical protocols across laboratories, and the importance of collaboration between research institutions, commercial testing laboratories and regulatory bodies in building reliable frameworks for food authenticity verification. Ensuring the authenticity of honey is not only a scientific challenge but a matter of consumer trust and fair trade, and the Interfind visit reinforced the practical stakes of the analytical work SPECTRA is advancing.
Quality Control and ISO 17025: Meeting with Modern Analytics and ESYD
A further meeting brought Prof. Lambropoulou together with Marios Maroulis of Modern Analytics Testing Laboratories and Dionisios Kyriakidis, Lead Assessor of ESYD (the Hellenic Accreditation System), for a constructive discussion on quality control requirements and ISO 17025 accreditation in the context of LC-MS analysis of emerging contaminants. The exchange explored key aspects of method validation, data quality and laboratory accreditation as they apply to the determination of emerging contaminants and pesticides by mass spectrometry, with a focus on what robust, harmonised analytical frameworks look like in practice and how research-generated methods can be positioned for accredited use.
Regional Plant Protection and Quality Control Centre: Pesticides in Food
A visit to the Regional Plant Protection and Quality Control Centre of Thessaloniki, part of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, brought SPECTRA into direct dialogue with the regulatory bodies responsible for food safety oversight in the region. Discussions with Chrysanthi Vaxevani, Manolis Karazafeiris and Katerina Souna focused on the determination of pesticides and emerging contaminants in olive oil, olives and other food matrices using LC-MS/MS, and on how the analytical approaches being developed within SPECTRA can support and strengthen the regulatory monitoring frameworks that protect consumers and producers alike.
Taken together, these April meetings illustrate something important about how SPECTRA operates. The project’s analytical work does not exist in isolation from the laboratories, companies and regulatory bodies that ultimately need to apply, validate and act on it. Building these relationships, understanding the practical constraints and requirements of different contexts, and contributing SPECTRA’s research expertise to real-world analytical challenges is part of what the project means by impact.
