> coupled with an abbreviated selection of target compounds

When I was still doing fire-debris analysis as a forensic lab rat (many years ago),
I bought every single one of ASTM E1618's target compounds (neat, Analytical-grade - a few dozen all told)
- quite a mission (in terms of the prerequisite 3 quotes, and this being at the tip of Africa, all imported from USA or Germany)
and made up quantitative target-compound test mixes to run with each batch on GC-MS.
Technically, this may be over the top, but hey - the extra effort sure makes it a lot easier in court down the line.

Sad thing is that, when I popped into the State lab last year, I asked whether they still had the stock compounds I had bought;
Nah, they said - tossed the lot of them, since they were past their 'expiry date'.
I almost choked - these compounds survived 100 million years under the ground
- a few years stored in a refrigerator ain't going to do diddly-squat to them.
Frightening thing is, they hadn't replaced them either...