A letter requesting admission into the program must be submitted to Technical Services Branch of the S&T program at the following address:

Isaac G. Sterling, Program Manager

Laboratory Accreditation Program, Trichinae Export Program

USDA, AMS, Science & Technology, TSS, STOP 0272

1400 Independence Ave. SW, Room 0604-S

Washington, D.C. 20250-0272

The company must pay a yearly fee of $8,300.00 to the Agricultural Marketing Service. This fee is evaluated yearly to determine if it covers all program costs. The fee covers the training of two analysts each year, quarterly check samples for all trained analysts, a yearly on-site review by AMS scientists, record keeping, laboratory equipment for the Technical Advisor, overhead, and time required to administer the program. If a company desires the training of additional analysts (more than the two provided for by the yearly fee), there is an additional charge of $700.00 per trainee.

All analysts must be trained in an AMS-sponsored training course. Upon completion of the training, the analysts must successfully analyze check samples in their own laboratory to complete their certification. They will then receive a certificate of training and an accreditation certificate. All certificates should be retained as proof of full accreditation.