The SPISE Advice for functional inspection of seed treatment equipment

Abstract

The new SPISE Advice for the inspection of seed treatment equipment (STE) which deals with requirements for mobile and stationary equipment will be presented. As there are no European or international standards for these types of devices available up to now, the requirements had to be developed first. For mobile seed treatment equipment such as equipment on potato planters the requirements are strongly based on comparable requirements for sprayers in use, EN ISO 16122-series. For stationary systems special requirements apply. Seed treatment equipment is relative to field spraying used in minor scale. According to Directive 128/2009/EU Article 8, 3.a, it could be possible for Member States to apply a different timetables and inspection intervals for such equipment. E.g. equipment for laboratory use or industrial use already engaged in quality assurance systems could be situations where such exemptions could be regarded. For Germany it is planned, to exempt STE with a batch weight of less than 5 kg from the inspection.