ISO/IEC 17025:2017 sets general requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of testing and calibration laboratories. Accreditation to it is a third-party attestation by an accreditation body that a laboratory meets those requirements for defined activities.
What the standard covers
- Impartiality and confidentiality as structural requirements, not policies.
- Competence, training and authorisation of personnel.
- Equipment, metrological traceability of measurements and calibration.
- Selection, verification and validation of methods.
- Handling, identification and storage of test items.
- Evaluation of measurement uncertainty and its reporting where it is relevant.
- Reporting of results, and the rules for statements of conformity against a limit.
- Assurance of validity of results, including participation in proficiency testing.
The point buyers miss
Accreditation applies to a scope: named methods applied to named matrices. A laboratory accredited for multi-residue pesticide analysis in cereals is not thereby accredited for the same analysis in frozen berries. A report on an out-of-scope test is not an accredited result even when the letterhead carries the accreditation mark, and a good laboratory will flag that on the report itself.
Ask for the current scope document, locate your method and matrix in it, and check the validity date. Ask which accreditation body granted it, and whether that body is a signatory to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation mutual recognition arrangement, under which accreditation bodies are peer-evaluated against ISO/IEC 17011. Inspection bodies are accredited to ISO/IEC 17020 instead, which is a different activity from testing.
Vorezan is an information platform, not a laboratory or an accreditation body. Verify scope and status directly with the accreditation body.
