As a tradition on the opening day of Fruit Logistica, on February 4, 2020, the laboratory managers' meeting on residue monitoring took place in Berlin again this year. The invitation of QS was accepted by a total of 122 responsible employees of the laboratories from 12 countries that are active in the QS scheme as well as those in the recognition process. They informed themselves about innovations in the QS scheme and about current topics in the residue analysis of fruit and vegetables. Due to the ever-growing international audience, the event was simultaneously translated into English, Italian and Spanish.
At the beginning of the event Dr. Kerstin Greulich (BfR - Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) informed about the challenges in the analysis and evaluation of substances with complex residue definitions. Afterwards Claudia Rotter, responsible at QS for the laboratories involved in residue monitoring, presented the results of the QS laboratory performance assessment for the year 2019 to the participants. Dr. Günther Kempe, consultant and laboratory expert for residue analysis and quality assurance, carried out the technical analysis of the test results and provided support and information on laboratory analysis.
Dr. Florian Hägele from the CVUA in Stuttgart (Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Office and EU reference laboratory for the determination of individual methods in the field of pesticides) reported on the analysis of very polar pesticides and their relevance as an integral part of the routine spectrum.
Dr. Andreas Schürmann (Kantonales Labor Zürich) presented in his presentation the problem of false positive signals in LC-MS analysis. In cooperation with Dr. Hermann Unterluggauer (Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety) and Dr. Günther Kempe, measures to detect and secure such results were explained using collected examples. Dr. Jürgen Kuballa spoke about the DeLOG position paper regarding hydrolysis-relevant active ingredients.
The final presentation by Dr. Günther Kempe dealt with current legal developments in residue analysis.
In addition to the wide range of topics, the breaks provided a lot of space for professional exchange with the speakers, QS staff and laboratory representatives.
