Trichinella Testing of Wild Boar

The Food Standards Agency is looking to appoint a supplier to provide Trichinella Testing of Wild Boar on a 5 year contract term. <br/><br/>This is an Open Procurement ran via our e-procurement system, Atamis. <br/><br/>Contact email address for any queries with accessing the system is: fsa.commercial@food.gov.uk.<br/><br/>All correspondence relating to the procurement and any clarifications must be made through Atamis.<br/><br/>THE SPECIFICATION <br/><br/>The Agency requires the Supplier to provide a fully managed, high quality service for the provision of Trichinella testing services as defined in relevant European and UK legislation and further described in the Legal Framework for Trichinella (Appendix B) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) (Appendix C) for the period 1 December, 2024 to 30 November, 2029.<br/><br/>The Supplier shall be responsible for maintaining a database of feral wild boar hunters and sourcing and distributing trichinella testing kits to the hunters.<br/><br/>The Supplier must ensure:<br/>

• Samples from feral wild boars should be trimmed to 10 – 11.5g and pooled to a maximum of 100g per test<br/><br/>
• Staff are trained and competent in testing for trichinella using the digestion method as detailed in Appendix C<br/><br/>
• There are sufficient trained members of staff to deal with the volumes shown in Appendix A and have a contingency plan should these volumes increase<br/><br/>
• Facilities are provided for receipt and storage of samples at all times<br/><br/>
• Attendance by a Supplier’s Representative at quarterly review meetings and other interim meetings as required by the Agency. These meetings may take place via videoconference/teleconference where appropriate and at the discretion of the Agency. <br/><br/>
• The Supplier must successfully participate in the UK NRL Proficiency Testing Quality Assurance programme<br/><br/>
• Invoices are consolidated and produced on a monthly basis in arrears for services delivered in the preceding calendar month.