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Guidance on ISO/IEC 17025 Schedule Presentation for Pesticides in Foods

It is an ISO/IEC 17025 requirement that methods shall be validated in the matrices to be tested. In the case of pesticides in Feed, Food and Food products the general guidance is that validation should be in line with (or equivalent to) current SANTE Guidelines (at time of writing SANTE 11945/2015). This bulletin groups food items likely to be tested for pesticide residues into Commodity Groups and proposes validation by Group.

Following requests from a small number of customers who have expressed a preference to have their pesticide schedule listings expressed in terms of the SANTE commodity groups the following is proposed:

Where validation has been carried out in accordance with these groupings and the laboratory has specifically request listing on their accreditation schedules by Commodity Groups this can be accommodated but will incur an account management charge of up to 0.5 days to revise and re-issue the schedule in this format.

Typical format for this would be to include as an annex to the schedule a table defining the Commodity Groups (current SANTE groupings as below):

 

Vegetable and fruits, cereals and food of animal origin:

Commodity groups

Typical commodity categories

Typical representative commodities

1. High water content

Pome fruit

Apples, pears

Stone fruit

Apricots, cherries, peaches

Other fruit

Bananas

Alliums

Onions, leeks

Fruiting vegetables / cucurbits

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons

Brassica vegetables

Cauliflowers, Brussels-sprouts, cabbages, broccoli

Leafy vegetables and fresh herbs

Lettuce, spinach, basil

Stem and stalk vegetables

Celery, asparagus

Forage / fodder crops

Fresh alfalfa, fodder vetch, fresh sugar beets

Fresh legume vegetables

Fresh peas with pods, peas, mange tout, broad beans, runner beans, French beans

Leaves of root and tuber vegetables

Sugar beet and fodder beet tops

Fresh Fungi

Champignons, chanterelles

Root and tuber vegetables or feed

Sugar beet and fodder beet roots, carrots, Potatoes, sweet potatoes

2. High acid content and high water content

Citrus fruit

Lemons, mandarins, tangerines, oranges

Small fruit and berries

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, red currants, white currants, grapes

Fruit pomace

Citrus fruits

3. High sugar and low water content

Honey, dried fruit

Honey, raisins, dried apricots, dried plums, fruit jams

4a. High oil content and very low water content

Tree nuts

Walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts

Oil seeds

Oilseed rape, sunflower, cotton-seed, soybeans, peanuts, sesame etc.

Pastes of tree nuts and oil seeds

Peanut butter, tahina, hazelnut paste

4b. High oil content and intermediate water content

Oily fruits and products

Olives, avocados and pastes thereof

5. High starch and/or protein content and low water and fat content

Dry legume vegetables/pulses

Field beans, dried broad beans, dried haricot beans(yellow, white/navy, brown, speckled), lentils

Cereal grain and products thereof

Wheat, rye, barley and oat grains; maize, rice wholemeal bread, white bread, crackers, breakfast cereals, pasta

Cereal grain products thereof, incl. cereal based composite feed

 

6. “Difficult or unique commodities”

 

Hops

Cocoa beans and products thereof, coffee, tea

Spices

7. Meat (muscle) and Seafood

Red muscle

Beef, pork, lamb, game, horse

White muscle

Chicken, duck, turkey

Offal

Liver, kidney

Fish

Cod, haddock, salmon, trout

8. Milk and milk products

Milk

Cow, goat and buffalo milk

Cheese

Cow and goat cheese

Dairy products

Yogurt, cream

9. Eggs

Eggs

Chicken, duck, quail and goose eggs

 

10. Fat from food of animal origin

Fat from meat

Kidney fat, lard

Milk fat

Butter

 

 

 

Feed:

Commodity groups

Typical commodity categories

Typical representative commodities

1. High water content

Forage crops

 

 

Brassica vegetables

 

Silage

 

Leaves of root and tuber vegetables

Grasses, alfalfa, clover, rape, fresh sugar beets

 

Kale/cabbage

 

Maize, clover, grasses

 

Sugar beet leaves and tops

2. High acid content and high water content

Fruit pomace

Citrus

3. High sugar and low water content

–

 

4a. High oil content and very low water content

Oil seeds cake or meal

 

Rape, sunflower, cotton-seed, soybeans, olives, etc.

4b. High oil content and intermediate water content

–

 

5. High starch and/or protein content and low water and fat content

Cereal grain and products thereof, incl. cereal based composite feed

 

 

Pulses

 

 

Straw

 

Hay

Wheat, rye, barley and oat grains; maize, rice

 

 

Field bean, dried broad bean, dried haricot bean (yellow, white/navy, brown, speckled), lentils

 

Wheat, rye, barley and oat

 

Grasses

6. “Difficult or unique commodities”

–

 

7. Meat and Seafood

Animal origin based composite feed

Feed for fish farms

8. Milk and milk products

–

 

9. Eggs

–

 

10. Fat from food of animal origin

Fat based composite feed

Fat content above 15%

 

Followed by a table defining in the x axis the Commodity group and the y axis the individual pesticides e.g. showing which groups are accredited (X) for which pesticide.

Food (or Feed):

Pesticide

Commodity Group

 

1

2

3

4a

4b

5

6

7

8

9

10

Acephate

X

X

X

X

X

X

–

X

X

X

X

Acetamiprid

X

X

X

X

X

X

–

–

X

X

X

Aldicarb-sulfone

X

X

X

X

X

X

–

–

X

X

X

Aldicarb-sulfoxide

X

X

X

X

X

X

–

–

X

X

X

Amidosulfuron

X

X

X

X

X

X

–

X

X

X

–

Aminocarb

X

X

X

X

X

X

–

X

X

X

–

 

Where the individual pesticides or commodity groups are not included within a single accredited method coding by letters or numbers will be used to provide traceability to the method listing in the main part of the schedule of accreditation.

Short term exclusions from accreditation where for example the laboratory is unable to obtain acceptable IQC performance would be the requirement of the customer to manage and communicate at contract review with its’ customers. The procedure for this would be subject to assessment initially as part of the account management exercise to create this schedule type and on-going as part of the annual assessment visit (without additional charge).

 

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