Why carry out interlaboratory studies?

An interlaboratory study (EIL) should be carried out if the analytical method :

• is designed to be used by several laboratories (inter- or intra-company), which will then compare their results;

• has been developed by a standards organization which, before publishing it, is obliged to organize an interlaboratory study to calculate the fidelity values that will accompany the finalized standard;

• will be used for official controls (such as health checks) or trade and will be employed by accredited laboratories.

This fact sheet will help you understand how an interlaboratory study is organized to assess the precision of a method, so that the results can be published. It explains how precision criteria (repeatability and reproducibility) are calculated and, finally, how the values obtained are used.