The USDA Agricultural Research Service Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit (QSARU), Athens, Georgia, is in need of a commercial item that is being acquired from the sole source.  The QSARU conducts research (Its primary mission is to perform and publish scientific research in the public interest on a broad range of agricultural and food products and research problems. The unit employs a diverse assembly of specialists and measurement technologies to solve the most demanding agricultural and food quality measurement problems that are of interest because of health, food safety, environmental or trade and economic concerns.)  using state-of-the-art equipment for very specific needs.  The property that is being solicited is the Time-of-Flight Mass Spectral (TOF-MS) detector for existing LECO GCxGC instrument, serial number 3205.  This is an upgrade of the existing system to add an additional detector.  The TOF-MS detector will provide critical chemical information above and beyond the current capabilities.  The new addition must both be compatible with the existing GCxGC hardware and be recognized and controlled through the operating software called ChromaTOF.   A search for competitive suppliers for the required upgrade returned zero results.  The search included internet searching (including GSA Advantage), peer surveys and industry expert questioning.  No known competitive suppliers exist.  Numbered Note 22 applies, except it is modified to read that potential sources have ten days to respond.