Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. AOAC International is a non-profit scientific association with headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. It publishes standardised, chemical analysis methods designed to increase confidence in results of chemical and microbiologic analyses. Government agencies and civil organisations often require that laboratories use official AOAC methods. AOAC International, informally the AOAC, was founded September 8, 1884 as the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, by the United States Department of Agriculture, to establish uniform chemical analysis methods for analysing fertilizers; membership was limited to government analytical chemists until 1987, afterwards, membership was extended to industrial scientists.