Industry sectors wishing to export to Europe must participate and successfully meet the requirements of an 'approved' EU market access residue program for their product to be eligible for export. The European Commission (EC) regulates the EU program under EC Directive 96/23/EC. All aspects of this directive must be adhered to in order for a program to be deemed 'approved'. In Australia, the EU program is overseen by AQIS (the governing authority) and SARDI is contracted to AQIS under delegated authority as a service provider for seafood exports.

Under the current program with the Tasmanian Salmonid Grower's Association (TSGA), SARDI is contracted by TSGA to coordinate the laboratory analysis but is not contracted to undertake sample collection.

RDS Partners was contracted by the TSGA as an independent service provider to undertake the sampling component of this program.

Sample collection was sucessfully undertaken by RDS Partners in accordance with a sampling plan prepared by SARDI.