Commission Regulation (EC) No 670/2009 (repealed)Show full title

Article 16 Sampling and tests of offers of paddy rice

1. With a view to verifying the requisite quality requirements under Article 15 for accepting the rice for intervention, samples shall be taken by the intervention agency in the presence of the bidder or his/her duly authorised representative.

Three representative samples, each weighing a minimum of one kilogram, shall be collected. One each shall go to:

(a) the bidder;

(b) the store where the take-over is to take place;

(c) the intervention agency.

To make up the representative samples, the number of samples to be taken shall be obtained by dividing the quantity of the batch on offer by 10 tonnes. Each sample shall weigh the same. The representative samples shall be made up of the sum of the individual samples, divided by three.

The requisite quality requirements shall be verified using the representative sample intended for the store where take-over is to take place.

2. Representative samples shall be made up for each part-delivery (lorry, barge, railway wagon), under the conditions set out in paragraph 1.

Before its entry into the intervention store the examination of each part-delivery may be restricted to a check of the moisture content and impurity level and verification that no live insects are present. However, if it later becomes apparent when the check is finalised that a part-delivery does not satisfy the minimum quality requirements, the batch shall be refused for take-over. The entire batch must be withdrawn. The bidder shall bear the costs of this operation.

If the intervention agency in a Member State is able to check all the minimum quality requirements for each part-delivery before it enters the store, it shall refuse take-over of any part-delivery that fails to satisfy these requirements.

3. The rice shall be monitored for radioactive contamination only if the situation so requires and during the necessary period. Where necessary, the duration and scope of checks shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 195(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007.

4. The test results shall be notified to the bidder in the take-over record provided for in Article 18.

5. In cases of dispute, the intervention agency shall have the necessary tests on the products in question carried out again, the cost being met by the losing party.

The new test shall be carried out by a laboratory approved by the intervention agency on the basis of a new representative sample composed of equal parts of representative samples kept by the bidder and the intervention agency. In the event of part-deliveries of the batch offered, the result shall be obtained from the weighted average of the findings of the analyses of the new representative samples of each part-delivery.

6. In the event where the tests do not allow the paddy rice offered to be accepted for intervention, the bidder may replace the batch concerned, no later than 20 working days afterwards, without prejudice to the deadline for delivery set out in Article 10(2). By way of derogation from Article 11, the transport costs inherent in this replacement shall be borne solely by the bidder.