What Is the AOCS Laboratory Proficiency Program (LPP)?

The AOCS Laboratory Proficiency Program (LPP) is a proficiency testing service that lets a laboratory demonstrate the quality of its analytical work and meet ISO 17025 requirements. It sits within AOCS's Technical Products portfolio, alongside Official Methods and Recommended Practices, Certified Reference Materials (CRMs), and Quality Reference Materials (QRMs). It is aimed at labs that need to show, with external evidence, that their results are accurate and consistent — typically analytical labs in fats and oils, surfactants, proteins, and related materials.

What the LPP actually does

Proficiency testing works by comparison. A provider sends the same sample to many participating laboratories; each lab analyzes it with its own methods, staff, and equipment; the provider then compares each lab's result against the group. AOCS describes the LPP as a way to "demonstrate your lab's quality and meet ISO 17025 standards."

For a lab, that produces two things:

• An external check on accuracy — how close your result is to the accepted value or consensus.
• A record of consistency over time — whether your performance holds across rounds, not just once.

Both matter because internal quality control only tells you that you are consistent with yourself. It cannot tell you whether your whole measurement system is offset from the rest of the field.

Who it is for

The LPP fits laboratories that:

• Are seeking or maintaining ISO 17025 accreditation, where proficiency testing is an expected part of demonstrating competence.
• Need documented evidence of analytical quality for clients, regulators, or internal quality systems.
• Want to identify problems early — a drifting result in a proficiency round is a signal to investigate before it affects customer samples.
• Work in the matrices AOCS covers: fats and oils, surfactants, proteins, and related materials.

If your lab only performs occasional, non-critical measurements, or works entirely outside these material areas, the fit is weaker — check the current scope of the program before committing.

How it relates to the rest of the AOCS technical portfolio

The LPP is one of several tools, and they answer different questions:

A common combination is to use Official Methods to standardize the procedure, CRMs or QRMs to verify the setup, and the LPP to confirm the outcome against peer laboratories.

How to get started

1. Go to aocs.org and open the Technical Products section.
2. Select Laboratory Proficiency Program (LPP) to read the current program details.
3. Confirm that the program covers the analytes and matrices your lab tests — this is the step most often skipped.
4. Register for the relevant study and follow the sample-handling and reporting instructions provided.
5. Analyze the shipped sample using your routine procedure, and report results by the stated deadline.
6. Review your report when it is issued, and act on any outlier or warning result through your normal corrective-action process.

Common sticking points

• Treating a poor result as a failure rather than a finding. The value of proficiency testing is in the investigation it triggers.
• Analyzing the test sample differently from routine samples. That defeats the purpose — the round should reflect your normal performance.
• Assuming the program covers everything you do. Scope varies by study; verify before registering.
• Missing deadlines. Late or incomplete reporting usually means no usable evaluation for that round.

For current study schedules, scope, and participation terms, the LPP page under Technical Products on aocs.org is the authoritative source.