About the analytes

Pesticides residues

The pesticide control is a rutine analysis very important for the assurance of the security of the food and compliace of it with the legislation. Laboratories must be able to detect and quantify correctly between hundreds of possible pesticides if an analyte is in the sample and in which concentration, always avoiding reporting false posivites.

The Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) for the pesticides is the maximum amount of pesticide that should contain a matrix in order to not be a health problem for the consumers, to facilitate its comercialization and to control the use of phytosanitary products. The decision to set the MRL takes into account a wide number of variables, to cite some: toxicologic data, metabolism and the persistency in various environments.

The MRL can be consulted in the annexes from the reglament 396/2005 here and an updated list of pesticides and their MRL for each matrix can be found here.

You can see the possible pesticides in the sample by checking the protocol that can be found and downloaded in this page.

Why participate in a proficiency test?

There are many reasons to schedule these quality controls, the participation in international proficiency tests helps laboratories detect improvements and ensure the results are reliable.

As of today, one of the main goals for any laboratory is increase its client’s trust in their analysis procedure and results obtained, checking that equipment, personel, solvents and all the steps and parts involved in the analysis are working as intented, providing trustworthy and realiable results.

As a laboratory its is now more important than ever to be able to obtain results with precision and accuracy to help your clients commercialice products safe for the end-user.

The continuous participation in proficiency tests can help you detect bias and check if any change or improvement made as an effect on the results obtained.

TestQual's international proficiency tests are a great and reliable service to help you check your results against laboratories from all around the world, helping you detect any deviation to correct it and ensure your clients continuous quality controls and improvements are being monitored by participating and checking your results against other laboratories.

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 with a single sample, 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 of this proficiency test will be:

Approximately between 10 and 200 μg/kg (if there are any sum parameters they might not be within this range)

The target standard deviation for the analytes can be checked in the protocol (25% all analytes in this PT).

The target pesticides can be checked in the protocol.

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. Only participants inscribed in the proficiency test will receive the sample instructions/recommendations and the definitive date for the distribution of samples.

Accreditation and standards

·Standars in which this proficiency test is based/accredited:

·UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010 General requirements for proficiency testing. (Proficiency test NOT ACCREDITED). Check our scope of accreditation here.

·UNE-EN ISO/IEC 15328:2015 Statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparison

· HARMONIZED PROTOCOL FOR THE PROFICIENCY TESTING OF (CHEMICAL) ANALYTICAL LABORATORIES

·SANTE Guide into force: ANALYTICAL QUALITY CONTROL AND METHOD VALIDATION PROCEDURES FOR PESTICIDE RESIDUES ANALYSIS IN FOOD AND FEED

Why international proficiency tests with TestQual?

·18 years of experience in proficiency tests since our foundation.

·Posibility, if previously requested, to issue independent reports per analyte.

·International proficiency tests with participants from different countries (currently up to 5 continents).

·Transparency: Results from spiking and quality controls (homogeneity, stability) available for any participant that requests it.

·Expanding network of distributors to give a better client service, using local language and within your time zone. If your country still does not have a distributor, please, contact us, we can still accept your order.

·We take care of all aspects of the shipping, so you can focus on the analysis.

· We are available at any time and any direct consult to TestQual has an inferior response time of 24h (working days).

·We do not publish beforehand the price of shipping because we are constantly negotiating with providers and couriers to improve and adjust our prices. However, if you need a closed price in the quote and need to know the shipping costs, please, let us know and we will include it.

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 (usually 24h) you will receive an email with your laboratory code for the participation in the PT.

Contact us

If you have any doubt, if you want to get a quote or if we can help you in any other way, we are looking forward to helping you:

Thank you very much for your interest/trust in TestQual and our international proficiency tests.

If you want to receive a sample and participate click on the button "Participate" down below.