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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