Analysis of plant protection products: techniques and particularities of sampling in the laboratory

In the framework of control of plant protection products, competent government authorities and holders of product authorisations and parallel import permits take samples of plant protection products and examine them for identity, or rather conformity with the product authorisation. A decisive factor for the correctness of analytic results produced in the laboratory, and which may also be used in legal proceedings, is to take a representative sample from a packaging unit. As there are no legal provisions to this end in the field of plant protection products, the German-speaking Working Groups for Plant Protection Product Analysis (DAPA) and for Plant Protection Product Formulations (DAPF) have worked out a joint publication on this matter. It discusses various techniques and approaches for sampling with regard to various kinds of commercial packaging of plant protection products, and explains problems and particularities with regard to certain kinds of formulations.