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Southwest Region, Kansas City District
Total Diet and Pesticide Research Center

11630 W. 80th Street
Lenexa, KS  66214-3340

Background Mission Facilities/ Resources Areas of Expertise Research Projects Staff

Background

The Total Diet Research Center (TDRC) was established in 1980 to develop methods and identify equipment to support the FDA Total Diet Study.  In 1995, TDRC merged with the Pesticide and Industrial Chemical Research Center in Detroit to form the current TDPRC and to expand the scope of analyses. Currently, TDPRC is staffed by four research scientists.  

In conducting the Total Diet Study, FDA personnel purchase foods from supermarkets or grocery stores four times per year, once from each of four geographic regions of the country.  The 261 foods that comprise each market basket represent over 3500 different foods reported in USDA food consumption surveys.   For example, apple pie represents all fruit pies and pastries.  Each collection is a composite of like foods purchased in three cities of a given region.   The foods are prepared table-ready and then analyzed for pesticide residues (as well as radionuclides, industrial chemicals, toxic elements, trace and macro elements, vitamin B6 and folic acid).  The levels of pesticides found are used in conjunction with USDA food consumption data to estimate the dietary intakes of the pesticide residues.


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Mission

TDPRC provides technical assistance to the Total Diet Laboratory in the following general categories:

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Areas of Expertise

The research scientists at Lenexa bring a wealth of experience (about 100 years) to research and method development for trace level analyses in a wide variety of foods. Methods developed by this Center appear in FDA's Pesticide Analytical Manual, Journal of AOAC International and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.  TDPRC staff is experienced in mass spectrometry, supercritical fluid extraction, high-pressure liquid chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography, automated data collection, and automated HPLC analyses for the detection of pesticides and industrial chemicals in a variety of food stuffs.

TDPRC scientists are also in close contact with our colleagues in the Animal Drug Research Center (ADRC) at Denver and with the Seafood Product Research Center at Seattle.


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Facilities/Resources

The Kansas City District Office, located in a spacious business park in Lenexa, Kansas, was occupied during the summer of 1992.  The complex consists of two buildings totaling 60,000 square feet,  divided almost equally between laboratory and investigation functions.  The larger building, with 32,000 square feet of laboratory space, features a computer-controlled air handling system. This controlled atmosphere is necessary to minimize contamination of the highly sensitive analyses performed in the Total Diet Study. The system provides filtered temperature and humidity controlled air to each of the 30 laboratory rooms. New laboratory instrumentation was recently acquired to raise the analytical capabilities to match the new laboratory surroundings. Laboratory safety is a paramount concern at TDPRC; the facilities provide a safe environment for all staff members.

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Research Projects

The links below provide a summary of our recent research.
Research Projects: FY 1999 Fiscal Year 1999 Publications and Presentations
Research Projects: FY 1998 Fiscal Year 1998 Publications and Presentations
Fiscal Year 1997 Publications and Presentations
Fiscal Year 1996 Publications and Presentations

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Research Staff and Specialty

Marvin Hopper
Phone:  913-752-2126
E-Mail: mhopper@ora.fda.gov
Gas chromatography
Supercritical Fluid Extraction
Ion trap MS Chromatography
Bob Levine
Phone:  913-752-2124
E-Mail: rlevine@ora.fda.gov
Automated analysis
HPLC
Robotics
Bibliographic research
Ron Luchtefeld
Phone:  913-752-2127
E-Mail: rluchtef@ora.fda.gov
HPLC: inc. post column derivatization, photodegradation
Solid Phase Extraction
Hazardous Waste and Chemical Hygiene
Paul Smith
Phone:  913-752-2125
E-Mail: psmith@ora.fda.gov
Mass spectrometry

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This page was last updated on: 10/02/03.