Romer Labs® first Check-Sample-Survey was conducted in November 2009 by its Brazilian subsidiary in cooperation with the Missouri-based Romer Labs Inc. The ring trial was initiated as part of the company's integrated service approach and was well received, especially by industry labs that lack access to established international interlaboratory studies.

The aflatoxin test samples, containing naturally contaminated corn, were dispatched to 49 laboratories all over Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, of which 42 labs returned results within the proposed time-scale. Almost 60% of the participants can be attributed to the food, petfood and feed sector, whereas 20% are research institutes and universities. Nearly one quarter of results were submitted by private service labs. Half of the participants used ELISA as the preferred detection method and nearly a third of the laboratories employed HPLC with fluorescence detection.

The Romer Labs® Check-Sample Survey impressively showed the ever increasing quality awareness of laboratories in South America and how advanced mycotoxin monitoring systems in this part of the world already are.