Contract to undertake official pesticide residue testing programme in food and infant food for Northern Ireland Government.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a Crown non-departmental public body with specific statutory functions in relation to health and safety. HSE is an independent regulator of health and safety and has responsibility for delivering a national programme of pesticide residue testing in food on the market (post border) for Northern Ireland. This responsibility is on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs which is part of the Northern Ireland Executive. The Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD) is a Directorate of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and will be responsible for the day-to-day oversight of this work. The primary aim of CRD is to ensure the safe use of biocides, industrial chemicals, pesticides and detergents to protect the health of people and the environment. CRD is responsible for the regulation of biocides, pesticides, detergents, chemicals as they are regulated by REACH, and duties under the Classification, Labelling and Packaging regime. Throughout this specification the term HSE will be used to describe the customers need. The Northern Ireland government are required to undertake a national pesticide residue monitoring programme under Regulation 396/2005 and Regulation 2021/1355 (as they have effect by virtue of the Windsor Framework) to check food on the market for compliance with statutory maximum residue levels and to identify residues that may have arisen from non-authorised use on NI produced food. The national testing also includes participation in a mandatory EU survey as specified by a specific annual EU regulation. The most recent regulation is Regulation 2023/731 . Relevant infant food legislation relating to maximum residue levels is applicable in relation to the testing of infant food and formula. Commission Directive 2006/125/EC of 5 December 2006 on processed cereal-based foods and other baby foods for infants and young children. Commission Directive 2006/141/EC of 22 December 2006 on infant formulae and follow-on formulae. By law this official testing can only be undertaken by laboratories that: • are already designated as an official laboratory under the official controls regulations 2017/625 to perform the same functions, including the mandatory EU survey and • are also geographically situated either in Northern Ireland, EU or EEA. HSE is seeking to put in place a contract from 1 July this year for an official laboratory to undertake the testing of food on the Northern Ireland market for a 3.5 year period. The first period of testing will be for samples collected July to December 2024 (380 samples) and then around 700 samples collected throughout 2025, with an option for HSE to let for an extended for two further calendar years subject to satisfactory performance. In a full calendar year, the programme typically covers around 560 fruit and vegetable samples (including in some years olive oil), 130 cereal and bread samples and 12 infant or infant formula samples. The official laboratory will be required to deliver a number of tasks including receiving samples direct from the Northern Ireland sample collection contractor (samples will be collected in accordance with commission directive 2002/63/EC of 11 July 2002 establishing community methods of sampling for the official control of pesticide residues in and on products of plant and animal origin and repealing Directive 79/700/EEC) recording information about the sample, conducting pesticide residue analysis in line with the EU analytical quality control guidance Sante Nº SANTE/11312/2021v2 and submitting the results throughout the year to HSE and then annually to EFSA and the Commission. The majority of the testing will be achieved using multi-residue testing using GC-MS and LC-MS. However, for most surveys a small number of certain key analytes cannot be routinely included in the multi-residue methods, single pesticide residue testing will be required. Laboratories will be expected to routinely report their results of the mandatory proficiency testing schemes to HSE. Results will be required to be reported throughout the year to HSE to enable prompt follow up of non-compliance and to produce national reports for publication. Higher priority surveys will require faster turn around than routine surveys. There should be no reduction in analytical quality control standards for faster turnaround. In addition, the results of this testing programme are required to be submitted annually to EFSA and the Commission. It is important that the laboratory has the proven capability to submit data in line with EFSA's obligatory formatting requirements. This is specified in the Standards Sample Description (SSD) documentation which is an agreed model for the reporting of harmonised data on analytical measurements of chemical substances occurring in food. Currently, the results are submitted to HSE in an XML format, processed by a data handling programme and then the results are summarised in a written reports and in tabular form. Full details of the final format of the current reports can be seen on data.gov.uk and gov.uk . Laboratories already doing this type of work may be able to meet our requirements according to a different mechanism. HSE understands that this programme of work will need to fit with existing laboratory schemes for pesticide residue analysis. We consider the engagement event will provide the opportunity to discuss with HSE-CRD the approaches taken in meeting the EU analytical quality control guidance SANTE/11312/2021v2 . Post award of any contract, HSE will be separately seeking to appoint a National Reference Laboratory (NRL) located in a MS to support the official laboratory. We are mentioning this here because it will be necessary for the official laboratory to liaise with the NRL once designated. To provide more information about this opportunity, HSE is holding a virtual supplier engagement event via Teams on 15 March 2024, commencing at 10.30 GMT. The event will consist of a one-hour presentation for all attendees and from 11.40am, attendees will be provided with an opportunity for a one-to-one Q and A session with HSE representatives. If you wish to attend the event, please register your interest by emailing NILaboratoryTender2024@hse.gov.uk no later than midday 12:00PM GMT 11 March 2024. You should provide details of your organisation and any attendees. The Q and A sessions will run from 11.40 am, potentially up to 2.30pm, and will each last for 20 mins. If you wish to book a Q and A session, please indicate this when you register your interest in attending the event and provide details of your preferred time slot. HSE will do its best to facilitate your preferred time slot but if we cannot do so, you will be offered an alternative time slot. HSE recognises that organisations may wish to deliver this opportunity with a partner, or as part of a consortium, so it is acceptable for all partners to attend the same one to one session. Additional information: If you wish to attend the event, please register your interest by emailing NILaboratoryTender2024@hse.gov.uk no later than midday, ie 12:00 PM GMT 11 March 2024 you should provide details of your organisation and any attendees. The Q and A sessions will run from 11.40 am, potentially up to 2.30pm, and will each last for 20 mins. If you wish to book a Q and A session, please indicate this when you register your interest in attending the event and provide details of your preferred time slot. HSE will do its best to facilitate your preferred time slot but if we cannot do so, you will be offered an alternative time slot. HSE recognises that organisations may wish to deliver this opportunity with a partner, or as part of a consortium, so it is acceptable for all partners to attend the same one to one session.