Check out UCT’s new article on Cannabis Industry Journal entitled, “HPLC Column Selection for Cannabis Chromatographers.”

It’s no surprise that oral fluid drug testing has gained recent popularity in forensic and clinical laboratories. Not only is it easier to acquire from a sample collection perspective, but also, it’s much less invasive when comparing the measures utilized to solicit urine and blood samples. 

The number of products marketed as “legal alternatives to cannabis” or “legal highs” have dramatically increased in popularity in recent years. It can be a real challenge for testing labs to keep up with the new, synthetic cannabinoids. Although these compounds are ever-changing, they are derived from “template structures”, which are ideal candidates for clean-up via solid phase extraction (SPE).

In produce processing, water used to wash both fresh and fresh-cut produce is commonly treated with sanitizers for the purpose of controlling pathogens and minimizing microbial cross-contamination. Chlorine-based sanitizers are most commonly used for produce processing in the food industry (FAO/WHO, 2008). While chlorine’s efficacy in controlling pathogens is well recognized, one of the main concerns is the reactivity of chlorine with organic and inorganic substances to generate harmful disinfection bi-products (DBPs) and emerging DBPs of concern including haloacetonitriles, halonitromethanes, haloacetamides, and nitrosamines (NISAMs). Monitoring these DBPs is necessary to protect food safety but comprehensive analytical methods have been lacking. 

In a recent paper authored by Wan-Ning Lee et al., published in Food Chemistry (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.02.134), UCT’s Enviro-Clean® 521 sorbent (200 mg/ 6 mL) was employed to analyze DBPs and NISAMs in food wash water. 

An article titled, ‘Determining Zolpidem Compliance: Urinary Metabolite Detection and Prevalence in Chronic Pain Patients’ was recently published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology (DOI: 10.1093/jat/bku068).