Example 6.

How to report the results for processed milk products (e.g. butter) for a fat soluble pesticide with an MRL above the Limit of Quantification (LOQ)

Data element	Element value (catalogue)	Code description	Note
prodCode	P1020010A (MATRIX)	Milk (cattle)
prodText	Butter		Data element to be used to describe in detail the nature of the product analysed
prodTreat	T152A (PRODTR)	Churning – butter	Code to be used exclusively for butter samples of animal origin
paramCode	RF‐0237‐001‐PPP (PARAM)	Hexachlorobenzene	It is noted that the legal residue definition for hexachlorobenzene is labelled with the suffix (F) in the MRL legislation (i.e. this pesticide is lipophilic); the results can be reported on fat basis (code B003A for data element ‘exprRes’) or on whole weight basis (code B001A). In this example, the result is reported on fat basis
resLOQ	0.01		Numerical value for the LOQ of the analytical method used to analyse the sample and expressed in mg/kg fat. If for ‘exprRes’ the code B003A is used, the ‘resLOQ’ also refers to the LOQ for fat (not recalculated to milk)
resLOD	0.005		Not mandatory information, but it is recommended to report it, if available. Similar to the resLOQ, resLOD should refer to the LOD for fat (not recalculated to milk)
resVal	0.3		The residue concentration measured in the sample (expressed on fat basis, i.e. as mg/kg fat)
resType	VAL		Residue numerically quantified above the resLOQ
resLegalLimit	0.25		The hexachlorobenzene MRL for milk is 0.01 mg/kg. If the result is reported on fat basis (B003A in the ‘exprRes’ data element), the MRL has to be recalculated to milk fat using a factor of 25 (MRL set for milk with default fat content of 4%). Then, the in data element ‘resLegalLimit’ the recalculated limit of 0.01 × 25 = 0.25 should be reported
fatPerc	80		If for the data element ‘exprRes’ the code B003A is used, the sample as analysed is considered made up of 100% fat (isolated fat from the original sample) The data element ‘fatPerc’ refers to fat percentage in the original sample taken, and not the analysed fat portion of the sample. Thus, in this example, the ‘fatPerc’ could be, e.g. 80%. The ‘fatPerc’ shall be reported with a figure greater than zero, but below or equal to 100 Please note that for results reported with the ‘exprRes’ code B003A, it becomes mandatory to report the numerical value of the fat percentage in the original sample. See also Section 2.6
exprRes	B003A (EXRES)	Fat weight	The code B003A can be used only for processed/unprocessed milk products and for processed/unprocessed eggs for pesticides that are labelled as fat soluble in the EU legislation
resEval	J031A (RESEVAL)	Compliant due to measurement uncertainty	The residue level measured in the fat portion of the sample (0.30 mg/kg fat) is greater than the MRL for milk recalculated to milk fat (0.25 mg/kg fat), but below the MRL taking into account the analytical method uncertainty of 50%