European Commission proficiency tests for pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables

European Commission proficiency tests (EUPTs) 1–10, developed by the Community Reference Laboratory for Fruits and Vegetables, involve European Official Laboratories for pesticide-residue control. Between 1996 and 2008, these EUPTs generated an important database of more than 12,000 pesticide-residue results using multi-residue methods, which have led to very valuable achievements in aspects of analysis (e.g., sample preparation, data dissemination and statistical evaluation). They also made possible an overview of the effectiveness of the EUPT as an important tool in developing quality-control results in pesticide-residue laboratories. In this work, we provide a historical overview and explain some of the main achievements of EUPTs 1–10.