EUPT-FV-16 Announcement / Invitation Letter
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to invite you to participate in the European Proficiency Test in Fruits and Vegetables 16 (EUPT-FV-16), organised by the European Union Reference Laboratory for Residues of Pesticides in Fruits and Vegetables on behalf of the European Commission, Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General (DG-SANCO).
This EUPT is open for all National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) and all Official Laboratories (OfLs) of the EU, and furthermore it is also open for the NRLs and OfLs of the EU-candidate states and the EFTA countries.
The PT is also open for Official Laboratories in third countries (countries outside the EU) as long as test material is available and provided that DG-SANCO gives its consent.
For participating laboratories from the EU, EU-candidate states and EFTA states the participation fee will be 175 €.
The test item for the EUPT-FV-16 will be PEPPER homogenate containing incurred pesticides.
The aim of this exercise is to ensure the quality, accuracy and comparability of the residue data reported by EU Member States to the European Union as well as other Member States within the framework of coordinated and national monitoring and surveillance programs.
Participation is mandatory for:
- All National Reference Laboratories for pesticides in fruits and vegetables (NRL-FVs)
- All Official Laboratories undertaking pesticide residue analyses within the frame of National and EU official controls, as long as their analytical scope (commodity/pesticide-combinations) fully or partly overlaps with the scope of this EUPT (see Art. 28 of EC Reg. 396/2005).
All the potential labs that according to the information stored in our Lab-Network Database are obliged to participate at the EUPT-FV-16, will be contacted and invited via e-mail. If participation in this EUPT is not possible, DG-SANCO expects from all the obliged laboratories to give an explanation. This explanation can be given by e-mail to: cferrer@ual.es or amadeo@ual.es
The test materials, 300 g of pepper homogenate containing incurred pesticide residues, together with 300 g of 'blank' pepper homogenate, will be shipped to participants on 24th February 2014. If any laboratories have holidays in the week of the shipment, please inform the organiser to rearrange shipment - as soon as possible.
The laboratories have to determine the residue levels and report the concentrations for each of the pesticides that they detect (and also include the method used for each pesticide analysed but not detected to allow us to carry out a deeper analysis of the results). This list of target pesticides also contains the Minimum Required Reporting Level (MRRL) for each pesticide, please be aware that some MRRLs are lower than the general 0.01 mg/kg.
The 'blank' material is intended to be used for recovery experiments for the pesticides found in the test material and, if necessary, for the preparation of matrix-matched calibration standard solutions.
For the assessment of the overall laboratory performance, the Average of the Squared z-Score (AZ2) will be used as in the last Proficiency Test. Only laboratories that detect at least 90% of the pesticides present in the test material and report no false positives are going to be considered to demonstrate 'sufficient scope' and therefore they will be classified into Category A. Within Category A, the laboratories are going to be also sub-classified as "good", "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory". All the other laboratories will be classified in Category B, because they demonstrate "insufficient scope". For laboratories in Category B, classification will also be conducted. This information will be available in the General Protocol.
Please note that in some cases the documents or the dates could change, new versions updated. In this case, it will be published in our webpage and additionally an e-mail will be sent to the participants for notification. But please, check periodically our website in case the email does not get through to you.
For any further question about EUPT-FV-16, please contact with:
Mr. Amadeo R. Fernández-Alba
Department of Hydrogeology and Analytical Chemistry
UNIVERSITY OF ALMERÍA
Ctra. de Sacramento s/n
04120 La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería
Email: amadeo@ual.es
Ms. Carmen Ferrer
Department of Hydrogeology and Analytical Chemistry
UNIVERSITY OF ALMERÍA
Ctra. de Sacramento s/n
04120 La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería
Tel. (+34) 950014102
Email: cferrer@ual.es
Best Regards,
The EUPT-FV Organising-Team
Published 15-11-2013, 15:23:20
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