In addition to the Standard Terms and Conditions, the following Special Terms and Conditions listed below apply to shellfish testing.

You will be asked to confirm that you agree to all terms and conditions when you place an order.

Cefas Technology Limited accepts no responsibility for samples failing to arrive in a timely manner or in a satisfactory condition. Samples arriving in an unsatisfactory condition will not be tested.

No samples will be returned.

The test results are applicable only to the sample tested at the time when tested. The Buyer acknowledges and accepts that the Seller accepts no liability for any damage or loss whatsoever caused to any person arising from the outbreak of norovirus or any other disease at any shellfish site of from the onward sale of materials from that site from which the most recent sample tested by the Seller produced a negative result.

Delivery of samples

The Buyer is solely responsible for the delivery of samples for analysis to the Seller. The Seller accepts no liability for samples failing to arrive in a timely manner or satisfactory condition.

The Sample Submission instructions must be followed and are hereby incorporated into, and form part of, the Conditions.

A Sample Submission Form must be included with any sample in accordance with the instructions on the Form and the Packing Guidance.

The Seller is entitled to reject any sample and to terminate or interrupt the Contract for good cause if the sample is in such condition on arrival that analysis is not possible without difficulty. The Buyer may submit (at the Buyers expense) a further sample for testing or the Seller will refund the value of the purchase (less 10% administration charge).

The Buyer must on the request of the Seller provide written information concerning the composition of the sample and its condition: for example information about pre-treatment or additives.

Failure to report at all or within an appropriate time (48 hr) after a request is made under the previous clause will entitle the Seller to terminate the Contract and request compensation of its expenses result in a delay to the testing time and we may terminate the Contract.

If the Seller decides in its discretion not to terminate the Contract under the circumstances in the above clause, and the completion of the testing is delayed as a result of a failure to comply with clauses, the Seller may charge the Buyer for any additional costs of delay. In such circumstances the Buyer has the right to withdraw from the Contract but the Buyer must pay all costs incurred up to the point it notifies the Seller in writing of its intention to withdraw.

Ownership of samples

Any samples sent to the Seller become the property of the Seller on receipt. No sample will be returned.

The Seller may retain a sample for audit purposes.

The Seller and/or the testing laboratory reserves the right to use samples for its own research purposes. The Buyer who submitted the sample will have no liability to the Seller for any such further use of the sample.

Confidentiality

The Seller and/or testing laboratory will use reasonable efforts (commensurate with those used in maintaining its own confidential information) to keep analysis results in strict confidence, subject to its right to use such results as provided for above.

Testing and Results

The Seller will subcontract its testing obligations under this contract to the testing laboratory.

The Testing Laboratory is Cefas Shellfish Testing, Weymouth Laboratory, Barrack Road, The Nothe, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 8UB.

All samples will be anonymised on receipt at the testing laboratory and given a unique sample identification number. Laboratory analysts will not be able to identify the source of the sample. The Buyer will be provided with this number, and any other sample identifier on the test report.

Samples will be tested in accordance with test methods included in the scope of the UKAS accreditation for testing laboratories (Schedule No. 2293). Deviations or departures from this schedule will be notified to the customer.

Ownership of the test results passes to the Buyer on completion of the testing, however, the Seller or testing laboratory retains the right to store and use the test results in a confidential manner or in an anonymised form so as not to identify the Buyer.

Re-testing

Starting on the day of receipt of a test result, the Buyer may within 14 calendar days request in writing a re-test of a sample if it objects to the result.

The Seller must review the result where a request is made under the previous paragraph. The review may be conducted by the Seller itself or it may choose to commission a third party to conduct it instead.

If the review confirms the original result to which the Buyer objected, the Buyer must bear the full cost of the re-test. Otherwise the result will be reportedctified free of charge.

Notwithstanding the clause above, re-testing will only be done if the condition of the sample to be re-tested makes such re-testing possible.

Any term of the Contract which relates to liability applies to re-testing as it applies to testing.

Limitation of Warranty and Responsibility

The collection, storage and delivery of a sample is solely the responsibility of the Buyer. The Seller accepts no liability for any loss or damage which may occur to the sample or be caused by the sample in transit.

Once received the Seller will use reasonable care in the handling and storing of a sample but shall not accept liability for any loss or destruction of a sample in its possession.

The test results are applicable to only the sample tested at the time when tested. The Buyer acknowledges and accepts that tThe Seller accepts no liability for any damage or loss whatsoever caused to any person arising from the outbreak of norovirusdisease or any other illness at any shellfish site orf from the onward sale of materials from that site from which the most recent sample tested by the Seller produced a negative result.

The Seller will use its reasonable endeavours and reasonable care to produce reliable test results having regard to its level of experience in undertaking these tests, the price being paid by the Buyer and the overall circumstances of the testing. The Buyer understands and accepts that, notwithstanding this, testing may not always produce a correct reproducablereproducible result. The Seller's liability is limited as described in the previous paragraph.

It is the Buyer's responsibility to check the plausibility of any result and the Buyer relies on any result at its own risk.

The Contract is strictly between the Seller and the Buyer and nothing in the Contract establishes expressly or impliedly any right enforceable by any third party. The Parties hereby exclude any terms implied by law, statute, or otherwise in any way which confer third party rights to the maximum extent permitted by the application of the law.

For the purposes of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, this Contract is not intended to, and does not give any person who is not a party to it any right to enforce any of its provisions.

As a Government Agency Cefas has an obligation to support Government consumer protection law. Consequently in the unlikely circumstance that we became aware of non compliant product being knowingly placed on the market, we would be required to inform the appropriate Competent Authority.

Results from tests which are validated but not yet accredited must not be used for end product testing purposes, for compliance with EC Regulation 853/2004. However, results from validated but unaccredited tests may be used for risk assessment purposes.