Guidance

Non-pathogen scheme: sample instruction sheets and video

This external quality assessment (EQA) scheme is suitable for laboratories located on production sites where the introduction of pathogens may be inadvisable.

• From: UK Health Security Agency
• Published: 17 April 2014
• Last updated: 4 March 2022
  Show all updates

  1. 4 March 2022

     Updated sample instruction sheet (English and translations).

  2. 13 June 2017

     Updated all translated non-pathogen scheme: sample instruction sheets.

  3. 1 August 2016

     Added non pathogen scheme: sample instruction sheet (English).

  4. 7 January 2015

     Updated Non-Pathogen scheme: sample instruction sheet (French), sample instruction sheet (German), sample instruction sheet (Italian), sample instruction sheet (Portuguese) and sample instruction sheet (Spanish).

  5. 12 December 2014

     Sample instruction video added.

  6. 17 April 2014

     First published.

This publication was withdrawn on 15 May 2025

This content is no longer up-to-date. For the most recent information, see the Food and Environment Proficiency Testing Unit (FEPTU) website.

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Non-pathogen scheme: sample instruction sheet

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Non-pathogen scheme sample instruction video

The non-pathogen scheme is also suitable for laboratories that assess the microbiological quality of foodstuffs or perform shelf-life studies, but don’t routinely examine for pathogens.

The examinations covered are:

• Pseudomonas spp.
• yeasts
• moulds
• coliforms
• enterobacteriaceae
• Escherichia coli
• enterococci
• lactic acid bacteria
• aerobic colony counts at 30ºC