The mycotoxin proficiency testing schemes organized by Turkish National Food Reference Laboratory between the years 2013 and 2020

Abstract

The Turkish National Food Reference Laboratory has been organizing mycotoxin proficiency tests since 2013. Matrices were mainly selected from the products that Turkey produces and exports most. Therefore, control of mycotoxin contamination in these products intended for domestic consumption and for export to the European Union (EU) and other countries have a special importance. Laboratory controls are one of the important steps in this control. As an external quality control tool, proficiency tests provide the quality assurance of the laboratory test results. For performance evaluation, standard deviation for proficiency assessment is used to calculate z-scores. According to ISO 13528:2015, the standard deviation for proficiency assessment can be determined by experience with previous rounds of proficiency test. As a result of this study, a fit-for-purpose relative standard deviation of 17 % obtained from reevaluation of the previous proficiency tests can be used to calculate standard deviation for proficiency assessment for performance evaluation.