• Several Community regulations and directives lay down requirements for the hygiene of food products (foodstuffs and animal feed).
• The aim of these regulations is to protect consumers and ensure that all foodstuffs at the production, storage, processing and distribution stages are
  • they are safe and suitable for human consumption 
  • compliance with quality and health safety requirements.
• Chemical or biological agents that could pose a risk to humans or animals are particularly sought after.
• The role of water in the food sector:
  •  Among food products, drinking water is one of the most closely monitored foodstuff all over the world.
  •  In the food industry, water is an essential resource, not only as an ingredient, but also for production (heating or cooling), cleaning and staff hygiene. The water used may come from a public network and/or a private resource (well, borehole, surface water). In this case, the food company is responsible for the quality of the water from the point of abstraction to the point of use, and must obtain authorisation and undergo specific health checks by the Regional Health Agency.
  • Bottled water is also monitored by producers and distributors. They are subject to specific regulations because of their specific physico-chemical qualities.

As part of your ISO 17025 accreditation, your laboratory must meet the requirements of :

• Accreditation guides for physico-chemical and/or microbiological analyses of foodstuffs intended for humans or animals, as well as analyses of the food environment
• Approvals issued by Ministries of Agriculture to carry out food analyses.

In the case of bottled water, it is recommended that producers ensure that a quality assurance procedure is in place, taking particular account of the risks of contamination of the water by airborne contamination and the quality of the inputs (corks).
You must ensure the validity of your results and monitor your performance by comparing it with the results of other laboratories.

Your laboratory is likely to be interested in these proficiency tests on water, including bottled water:

• Microbiology in water
• Base parameters and indicators in water
• Metals in water
• Organic pollutants in clean water

By taking part in these interlaboratory comparisons, you receive an estimate of your analytical performance, enabling you to improve the quality of your water measurements.

• Monitoring the biological quality of watercourses is part of the monitoring of water bodies.
• As part of this process, laboratories take samples and determine the fauna (benthic invertebrates) and flora (diatoms and macrophytes) in watercourses.
• The results of these samplings and analyses are transcribed in the form of quality indicators that help to assess the ecological status of the water.

As part of your accreditation to ISO 17025 and/or approval, your environmental consultancy must meet the requirements of:

• accreditation guides for water sampling, on-site physico-chemical testing of water and biological analysis of aquatic environments
• approvals issued by Ministries of Health to carry out sampling operations 
• approvals issued by Ministries for the Environment to carry out analyses of aquatic environments under the Environment Code
• the Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC), which sets targets for preserving aquatic ecosystems.

You must ensure the validity of your results and monitor your performance by comparing it with the results of other laboratories.

Your laboratory is likely to be interested in the following categories of proficiency tests:

• Sampling and in situ measurements
• Biology and ecotoxicology

By taking part in these intercomparisons, your environmental consultancy receives an estimate of its analytical performance, enabling it to improve the quality of its measurements.

AGLAE designs and prepares tailor-made inter-laboratory tests, collaborative studies or samples such as reference materials. These are custom orders from third parties (standardisationn bodies, Ministries, Water Agencies, groups of laboratories, manufacturers, etc.), with the aim to:

• assess the performance of a group of selected laboratories
• characterise an analytical method
• validate an alternative method against a reference method
• validate a method  to standardise it, for example
• qualify staff

A few examples:

• Between 2019 and 2023, AGLAE prepared reference materials for :
  • an industrial company, as part of the management of its staff's qualifications, particularly for nitrate, nitrite and phosphate analysis 
  • a provider of analyses of health products for the determination of metals and sulphates as part of a corrective action following unsatisfactory results from interlaboratory tests
  • an environmental analysis service provider for the validation of microbiological methods prior to application in its laboratory.
• In 2021, AGLAE carried out the statistical processing of data from interlaboratory tests on the analysis of glass and rock wool for a European organisation.

If you are interested in these types of service, please contact us. We look forward to working with you.

Les laboratoires participant à nos intercomparaisons peuvent recevoir plus d’échantillons pour un essai et pour un coût réduit, ceci afin d'évaluer un technicien, tester une autre méthode… 

Principe : 

• En plus du colis habituel, les laboratoires reçoivent un ou plusieurs échantillons interlaboratoires supplémentaires
• Ils analysent les échantillons et retournent les résultats de l'essai interlaboratoires
• Un fichier est fourni pour que les laboratoires calculent leur z-score

Pour recevoir des échantillons supplémentaires, le laboratoire doit être inscrit à l’essai. La liste des échantillons disponibles et les tarifs se trouvent dans la section 'Téléchargements  / Catalogues'  de l'Espace Adhérent de chaque laboratoire inscrit aux essais d'aptitude AGLAE.

Si vous souhaitez bénéficier de tels échantillons, contactez-nous.

Il s’agit de matériaux issus des comparaisons interlaboratoires chimie sur matrices solides (boues, sédiments, sols) pour votre contrôle qualité au quotidien.
Ils sont vendus accompagnés d’un certificat (inclut une synthèse des valeurs assignées et de leurs incertitudes obtenues lors de l’essai).

Ces matériaux peuvent être utilisés dans le cadre du suivi et de l’amélioration des performances analytiques des laboratoires, en particulier pour :

• le contrôle qualité interne
• le suivi des actions correctives (notamment en cas de résultats insatisfaisants lors d’un essai)
• la validation de méthodes
• l’aide à la formation du personnel

Tout laboratoire adhérent de l’Association peut acheter à tout moment de l'année ces matériaux qu’il ait participé ou non à l’essai dont le matériau provient. Les matériaux sont disponibles dès l’édition du rapport d’essai.

Pour plus d'informations sur l'utilisation d’échantillons issus d’essais d’aptitude, consultez la brochure fournie par Eurachem .

Contactez-nous si vous êtes intéressé par ces matériaux.

Depuis 2014, AGLAE accompagne l'organisme ENAST (Empresa Nacional de Analisis y Servicios Tecnicos) dans l'organisation d'essais interlaboratoires à Cuba. 

AGLAE a aidé l'ENAST à mettre en place un laboratoire permettant de préparer les échantillons soumis aux essais et a formé certains de ses employés à la préparation d'échantillons stables et homogènes ainsi qu'au traitement statistique des données à l'aide de progiciels développés par AGLAE.
Depuis, des échanges et rencontres ont lieu ponctuellement pour poursuivre cet accompagnement.

Les laboratoires de l’ENAST emploient environ 200 salariés répartis dans 15 laboratoires d’analyse des eaux des provinces de Cuba. Des essais sur des paramètres physico-chimiques sont ainsi menés sur des eaux propres et résiduaires et quelques essais ont été conduits en microbiologie sur eaux propres. L'ENAST envisage de proposer des comparaisons interlaboratoires sur l'échantillonnage et mesures in-situ.