Laboratory performance assessment of Salmonella spp. in a food microbiology proficiency testing scheme

Abstract

       Bureau of Quality and Safety of Food, Department of Medical Sciences, had conducted the assessment of the competence of food laboratories in testing of Salmonella spp. by using the results from proficiency testing scheme during the fiscal year 2011-2015. The 6 rounds of data were obtained and there were 16, 36, 25, 58, 70 and 77 laboratories participating in each round, respectively. The total number of participating laboratories was 282 labs. It was found that, from 241 labs (85.5% of total labs), the labs that reported the correct results according to the assigned value were 16, 34, 21, 48, 52 and 70 labs which were 100.0, 94.5, 84.0, 82.8, 74.3 and 90.9 percent of the participating labs in the 1^st round to the 6^th round , respectively. The labs were also divided into 4 groups which were 91 government labs and 102 private labs accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025: 2005, 12 government labs and 77 private labs which had not been accredited. The labs in each group that reported the correct results were 86 out of 91 labs (94.5%), 94 out of 102 labs (92.2), 10 out of 12 labs (84.0%) and 51 out of 77 labs (66.2%), respectively. Accredited labs reported the correct results more than non- accredited labs. The statistical evaluation showed that the competence of accredited labs was significantly different from those of the non-accredited labs (p < 0.01). The competence of both government and private accredited labs was no significantly different. However, the results of the 6^th round showed that every groups of the labs reported more correct results when compared with the other rounds.