The Third QUASIMEME Workshop, held in Portugal from 26 to 31 October 1
993, was centred upon discussion of the results of the first round of
laboratory-performance studies and a symposium on quality assurance. T
he symposium included a programme of seminars and a poster session, wh
ich covered topics related to both sampling and analytical methodology
, and to analytical quality control. In this paper we present the key
general points to emerge from these sessions.