Confirmatory testing

Definition

Additional work sent to a contract laboratory when a result looks anomalous and the in-house evidence does not settle it, most often LC-MS. Where confirmatory work is used, the contract laboratory is named on the certificate.

Confirmatory testing is not part of the standard test and is not run on every sample. There is no in-house mass spectrometer, so no certificate from this laboratory carries a mass spectrum.

Related terms

Orthogonal method

A second method that separates or detects on a different physical principle from the first, so that what the first method could not distinguish, the second can.

Reference spectrum

A spectrum recorded from material of known identity, which a sample spectrum is compared against.

About identity confirmation

The spectroscopic techniques an identity conclusion is built from, and what each of them can settle.

Diode-array detectionFTIR-ATRRaman spectroscopyCapillary electrophoresisUV-Vis spectroscopy

Read more

• Purity versus identity
• Peptide identity testing
• The full peptide testing glossary