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Accreditation in support of Food Safety. Impact of food safety incidents. Call for governments and other agencies to tighten food laws. Who is responsible for ensuring that food is safe?. Governments and government agencies
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Impact of food safety incidents • Call for governments and other agencies to tighten food laws.
Who is responsible for ensuring that food is safe? • Governments and government agencies • Food safety is a shared responsibility and all levels of government - national, provincial and municipal • Establishes policies and standards governing the safety of food • Administers and enforces legislation related to food inspection, agricultural inputs and animal and plant health.
Who is responsible for ensuring that food is safe? b) Industry • Food industry bears the responsibility of meeting food safety regulatory requirements • Industry must play its role in assuring food safety through the application of quality assurance and risk-based food safety systems utilising current scientific knowledge.
What is Accreditation? Accreditation is the recognition that a Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) can produce “accurate results” within acceptable limits on a consistent and sustainable basis or produce “competent results” within acceptable limits on a consistent and sustainable basis
What is ISO/IEC 17025? • ISO/IEC 17025 contains the criteria necessary for a laboratory to implement in order for it to perform its test work competently • The criteria that a laboratory must comply with to be internationally acceptable is ISO/IEC 17025.
ISO/IEC 17025 • These are the base requirements necessary for a laboratory to be able to implement and operate to demonstrate it is competent • They are not “super” requirements • Cost (of compliance and/or Accreditation) is cost of achieving consistently good results • Cost of not having consistently good results could be much higher
Independent Accreditation is increasingly being used internationally by both regulators and private industries, as part of managing risk, to ensure both the competence and consistency of outcome of service providers used in the regulatory and voluntary domain.
ISO/IEC 17025 ISO 17025
ISO/IEC 17025 External Provided Products and Services Equipment Metrological traceability
ISO/IEC 17025 Handling of tests or calibration items Validation of methods Sampling
Selection, Verification and method Validation ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Clause 7.2.1.1 “The laboratory shall use appropriate methods and procedures for all laboratory activities and, where appropriate, for evaluation of the measurement uncertainty as well as statistical techniques for analysis of data”.
Selection, Verification and method Validation Appropriate Methods Dictionary meaning of appropriate…. • Suitable for the intended use • Proper for the intended use • Fitting for the intended use
Selection, Verification and method Validation How does the laboratory ensures that the method is fit/proper/suitable for purpose? • Firstly, by understanding the request (specified requirements) from the customer • Secondly, evaluating laboratory’s capability and resources • Thirdly, by selecting, verifying and validating method
Selection, Verification and method Validation • The laboratory shall ensure that it uses the latest valid version of a method.. • When the customer does not specify the method to be used, the laboratory shall select an appropriate method and inform the customer of the method chosen • The laboratory shall verify that it can properly perform methods before introducing them by ensuring that it can achieve the required performance. • When method development is required, this shall be a planned activity and shall be assigned to competent personnel equipped with adequate resources
Selection, Verification and method Validation • The laboratory shall validate: • non-standard methods, • laboratory-developed methods • standard methods used outside their intended scope or otherwise modified. • When changes are made to a validated method…., a new method validation shall be performed. • The performance characteristics of validated methods as assessed for the intended use, shall be relevant to the customers’ needs and consistent with specified requirements
Valid results For laboratories to produce valid results, the following need to be in place: • Appropriate methods • Competent personnel • Suitable equipment • Traceable measurements • Supported by management system
Food for Thought • Avoid working in silos • Close cooperation between regulators, industry and accreditation bodies • Food safety awareness • Embracing new technologies
THANK YOU ShadrackPhophi shadrackp@sanas.co.za www.sanas.co.za