**Ethephon and Glyphosate are not accredited**

Please, when filling the application use the "Notes" section to submit your LOQ for Glyphoshate. Thank you for your colaboration. 

About the analytes

The fosetyl is an organophosphated compound used as a aluminum salt (Fosetyl-Al), this has fungal and bactericide activity ¹  and is an allowed pesticide by the European legislation with an extended use in crops of fruit with seeds like pears, citrics and grape, to cite some of them ^1,2,3.

Fosetyl tends to  degrade to ethanol and phosphonic acid ^1,3, this happens both in solution and also with the in-source fragmentation of the LC-MS/MS ⁴. To be taken into consideration is that  phosphonic acid can suffer photodegradation in soil with the likely product being phosphate ³.

The current definition to express the amount of fosetyl in a sample is necessary to quantify its main metabolite, phosphonic acid, currently the pesticide residue for fosetyl is
Fosetyl-Al (sum of fosetyl, phosphonic acid and its salts, expressed as fosetyl) ⁵.

The ethephon LMR can be checked in the COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2015/399 of 25 February 2015 which is found here: EU LEX link

Glyphosate and other glyphosate-based plant protection products are mainly used to combat weeds that can compete with the target cultivated crops ^{8, 9} thanks to the herbicide mechanism that kills by inhibiting 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) that is necessary to produce key components for the plants. This inhibition can disrupt one of the main mechanisms that allows plants to fix more the carbon they require. ¹⁰

Enough levels of glyphosate has been found to be toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects ⁹ and endocrine disruptor that can cause an oxidative stress due to the overload of Ca²⁺ that disrupts male reproductive functions in rats.¹¹

For Glyphosate in the 2019 MRL review by EFSA different residue definitions were considered depending if the crop was or not genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate. In this study it was considered that the main definition would depend on this, being Glyphosate a sufficient marker to monitor this levels on conventional crops but for genetically modified tolerant plant to glyphosate should defined and reported as: “sum of glyphosate, AMPA, N-Acetly-glyphosate and N-acetyl-AMPA, expressed as glyphosate”. ¹²

Summary of the proficiency test

All the information about this PT can be found in the protocol, which can be downloaded from a link located in the right column of this page. 

This proficiency test will consist in a single round, the amount of sample to be distributed can be found in the protocol of this PT. If needed and justified, more amount of sample can be requested to the coordinator of the PT. Additional charges might apply.

The range of concentration for the target analytes (except sum) of this proficiency test might by between 10 and 300 μg/kg approximately.

The target standard deviation for all the analytes is 25%.

For this PT the parameters to be analyzed are: 

Parameters marked with an asterisk (*) are not accredited by ENAC (Spanish accreditation body)

PT Scheduled calendar

Check the right column of this page, in the “Dates” section.

*These dates are orientative and always will have to be checked in the protocol of the PT and the news in our webpage.

Accreditation

·Accredited PT in the ISO 17043:2010. Except marked parameters (*) Ethephon and Glyphosate. Check our scope of accreditation here.

Why participate with TestQual?

It can be of great interest for laboratories to be able to analyze and obtain trusted results, for this reason this TestQual proficiency tests (PT) are a perfect chance to compare and contrast your results with participants from around the world. Keeping a continuous quality control gives your results the reliability that your clients need for their products and helps your laboratory to improve continuously while detecting bias or errors that can be corrected with proper corrective or preventive actions.

One participation can help to highlight possible errors in the parameters from this proficiency test, however the real value of TestQual's PTs lies in a continuous participation that will allow to track the quality of the results and detect tendencies in your analysis over the time and check if they have been correctly solved.

Other reasons to choose your participations with TestQual:

·Growing number of participants each year. During 2020 a new record of participants was achieved for this PT.

·Constantly negotiating with couriers to get the best price possible. Each year more participants partake in our PTs, increasing our volume of shipping’s and reducing the cost of the shipments.

How to apply and get your laboratory code

Those laboratories that want to participate and are not registered on our website can register through this link: START REGISTRATION

If your laboratory is already registered on our website you can start your application by clicking the link situated at the top or bottom of this page, in PARTICIPATE, once you have logged in you will have to enter your Limit of Quantification (LOQ) for the parameters that have to be studied. The analytes with LOQ equal to NA (NOT ANALYSED) will NOT appear in the website when submitting the results of the PT.

Once the application has been sent, as soon as possible you will receive an email with your laboratory code for the participation in the PT.

If you would like to receive a quote, below you can find the contact data.

Contact us

If you have any doubt, if you want to get a quote or if we can help you in any other way, you can contact us by:

Please, when filling the application use the "Notes" section to submit your LOQ for Glyphoshate. Thank you for your colaboration.