EQAS

One of the tasks as the EU Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance is to organise and conduct Proficiency Tests (PT) which are also called External Quality Assurance System (EQAS) on antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli, enterococci and staphylococci. Also, PT's are is conducted to compare the proficiency related to the selective isolation and AST of E. coli isolates from samples of either meat or caecal content.

The main objective of these PTs is to support laboratories to assess and if necessary improve the quality of antimicrobial susceptibility testing of pathogens originating from food and animal sources. Furthermore, to assess and improve the comparability of surveillance and antimicrobial susceptibility data reported by different laboratories to EFSA.

DTU National Food Institute is accredited by DANAK under ISO/IEC 17043 (no. 516) to provide proficiency testing schemes for phenotypic PTs for the EURL-AMR, and under ISO/IEC 17025 (no. 350) to provide AST results (broth microdilution). All activities are conducted in accordance with documented quality assurance procedures, including the registration and assessment of complaints by the EURL-AMR PT team.

Complaints can be submitted directly to the PT coordinator (see email address in prenotification and PT protocol) or to food@food.dtu.dk. In cases where products and services for the PT are externally provided, DTU National Food Institute as PT provider retains the responsibility.