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CFSAN/Office of Plant and Dairy Foods and Beverages
April 20, 2001; Updated June 2003 and December 2006

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Total Diet Study

Introduction

Structure of Radionuclide Analysis Files

Note: Only records for analysis type "O" (original) should be used when reviewing or using the analytical results. All other records are quality control data samples.

Field Order Field Name Field Description
1 MB Total Diet Study market basket designation represented by a 3-digit number. The first 2 digits indicate the US government's fiscal year in which the market basket was collected and the 3rd digit is the sequence collected within the fiscal year.
2 Food No Number designation of a Total Diet Study food. For reference materials (Anal Type equals W) field contains an abbreviation of the material's name. For all other types of records (Anal Type equals B) field contains '---'.
3 Sample Description Name of the Total Diet Study food, name of the reference material, or term describing a control blank.
4 Anal Type Analysis type.

  • O = Total Diet Study food original analysis

  • D = Total Diet Study food replicate analysis

  • B = Control blank analysis

  • W = Reference material analysis

5 Radionuclide Full name of the radionuclide determined.
6 Conc Concentration of radionuclide in analytical sample except true value of radionuclide for Anal Type equals W.
7 Unit Unit of value in Conc, Uncert, and Rep Limit fields.
8 Uncert Uncertainty (two-sigma level) at about 95% confidence.
9 Rep Limit Reporting Limit. For strontium-90 reporting limit equals average limit of detection, 0.1 Bg/kg. For gamma-ray emitting radionuclides, the reporting limit equals the upper limit of the limits of detection for the ranges of foods and detection equipment used.
10 Recov (%) Percent recovery of radionuclide for Anal Type equals W.
11 Method Reference to document describing analytical method.
12 Instrument Abbreviation of analytical instrument used to determine element.

  • Gamma = Gamma-ray spectrometry (suffix may be present to indicate lab's detector number)

  • Beta = Beta-particle spectrometry

  • Alpha = Alpha-particle spectrometry

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Total Diet Study   |   Pesticides, Metals, Chemical Contaminants and Natural Toxins
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Hypertext updated by dav/shm December 28, 2006