A professional organization, now known as AOAC International and abbreviated AOAC, that develops and validates analytical methods for food, beverages, drugs, and agricultural products. Its official methods are the gold standards that laboratories, regulators, and industry use to settle questions of composition, safety, and authenticity: when a dispute arises over protein content, pesticide residues, or vitamin levels, the AOAC method is the referee. The association’s collaborative studies, in which multiple laboratories test the same method, ensure that results are reproducible across the world. For the food industry, AOAC validation is the mark of a trustworthy test kit or procedure, and regulatory agencies in many countries recognize its methods in law. It underpins the entire edifice of food analysis.