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Qu a l i t y A s s u r a n c e .
Fr om f a rm t o s h o p .
QS – Report 2012
Outlook 2013
On the road to success in
southern Europe
To be able to offer fresh fruit and vegetable products
with the QS certification mark all year round in the
German food retail international cooperation is
required. Interest in the QS scheme is particularly
great in the Spanish procurement market. Since
the beginning of 2012, the number of QS-approved
fruit and vegetable producers from Spain has risen
by more than half, and the number of Spanish
wholesalers in the QS scheme has more than doubled
within the same period.
To promote the exchange of experiences with
Spanish scheme participants, QS organised a
workshop in Valencia
for the first time in 2012. The
event was conducted in Spanish so that the total of
60
participants could find out about the practical
implementation of QS requirements without any
language barriers. In direct discussions, questions
on sampling within the scope of residue monitoring
were clarified and tips and tricks were given on how
to work the QS database.
Five Spanish certification bodies have already
registered themselves for the conducting of
independent audits in the QS scheme. To notify the
auditors about the contents of the QS scheme and
ensure the uniform quality of the audit evaluations,
auditor training was held in Spain
for the first time
in March 2013.
QAC – Scheme participants collect 9,000
analysis results
Participants in the QS scheme became
heavily involved in a monitoring programme
for the quaternary ammonium compounds
(
QAC) benzalkonium chloride (BAC) and
didecyldimethylammonium chloride (DDAC). Since
July 2012, a total of
8,897
analysis results
were
conveyed to QS. These were then handed over to
the
Federal Office of Consumer Protection and
Food Safety (BVL)
and
Federal Institute for Risk
Assessment (BfR)
in anonymised form at the end of
February 2013.
Positive and negative findings were recorded for
products from Germany and abroad. Analysis results
for more than 100 different fruit and vegetable
products from more than 60 countries were collected.
In 85 percent of the 4,740 analyses for BAC, no
residues of the disinfectant were found. Of the 4,157
tests for DDAC, 83 percent were residue-free.
The reason behind the monitoring programme is
the requirement contained in Regulation (EU) No.
396/2005
to establish a final Maximum Residue
Level (MRL) for BAC and DDAC. The currently valid
temporary MRLs of 0.5 mg/kg were established
by the EU Commission in July 2012 in response
to increased detection of residues of quaternary
ammonium compounds in fruit and vegetable
products. The anonymised data QS passed on to
the BfR in July 2012 helped to form the basis of the
quickly formulated edict.
“
I acquired a lot of new information at the training course.
It was particularly helpful that we were able to discuss our
issues directly with the QS personnel. This allowed us to deal
with the peculiarities of Spanish production.”
Teresa Zaragozá,
employee in the “Quality” area
at Kippenberg Frutas