The food industry is in the process of adapting itself more strongly than previously to the demands and needs for quality products. Tightening up the legal framework of conditions and the internationalization of the markets are compelling a further development of concern over quality and its purposeful application. The 13th International Conference on Biochemical Analysis organized a workshop together with the International Society of Animal Clinical Biochemistry (ISACB) within the framework of "Analytica 1992" in Munich to come to grips with this complex of problems. This workshop should reinforce the awareness and motivation for the new responsibilities of analytical chemistry and contribute to the integration of biochemical methods as part of a comprehensive quality control concept in the production of foodstuffs of animal origin. These methods include preventive medical checkups on the living animal, the monitoring of deleterious factors in its environment, as well as analysis of residues in its feed and the actual food. The aim of this workshop was: - to intensify the dialogue between applied research, development, and utiliza­ tion, - to demonstrate the new opportunities that analytical chemistry has to offer and to prepare the way for their introduction, - to show new methods, concepts, and prototypal developments - to draw conclusions from trends and tendencies, as well as future requirements.