Food Safety Magazine, February/March 2013

AccreditationBy Mohan Sabaratnam and Patrick McCullenThe Role of AccreditationBodies in Supply Chain RiskManagementAccreditation helps managerisk throughout the foodindustryFrom production to distribution, the complexcrop-to-table food supply chain is fraught withrisk, as demonstrated by recent outbreaks offood-related diseases such as bovine spongiformencephalopathy-infected beef, Listeria andSalmonella.Representatives from Danone, a French foodproducts corporation, and WalMart summarized thechallenges facing the food industry at the Global FoodSafety Initiative (GFSI) 2012 conference on “AdvancingGlobal Food Safety through Collaboration.” FrankYiannas, vice president of food safety at WalMart, said,“In a changing food delivery system, food production,processing, distribution, retail, foodservice and transportationall have a shared responsibility to providesafe food.”Yves Rey, quality general manager at Danone,added, “Today’s consumer not only expects value formoney but also demands that companies act responsiblytowards the community. Each time there is a foodsafety incident, besides the human tragedy, there is aloss of confidence in our food supply.”All food organizations, retail conglomerations andregulatory agencies look to food testing laboratoriesto ensure that biological and chemical components offoods are safe for consumers. But are all food testinglaboratories created equal?The short answer is no. Certainly,food testing laboratories are required tomeet ISO/IEC standard 17025:2005,General requirements for the competence oftesting and calibration laboratories. However,the devil is in the details. In thecase of food testing laboratories, bestpractices dictate that a third party assessthe competency of the testing lab and itscompliance with the relevant standards—and that’s where accreditation bodies(ABs) come into play.The ABCs of ABsABs are responsible for ensuringcompliance with standards, examiningthe competence of laboratory staff,verifying accredited scopes of testing/calibration and monitoring effectivenessof laboratory quality managementsystems. Third-party ABs can accreditcertification bodies, inspection agencies,calibration/testing laboratories and otherconformity assessment bodies. They arerequired to operate in accordance withISO/IEC 1701, General requirements foraccreditation bodies accrediting conformityassessment bodies. In general, an accreditedcertification body primarily providescertification to a quality managementsystem (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO22000, etc.), whereas an accredited testing/calibrationfacility provides an accuratestatement of measurement usuallyin a test report or calibration certificate.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) has concluded that certificationbodies should have access to competentlaboratory services needed to supporttheir food safety audit program functions.These laboratories should conformto ISO/IEC 17025:2005.As not all testing/calibration laboratoriesperform the same work or havesimilar capabilities, accreditation canhelp identify and qualify those that arecompetent to perform a defined scopeof work. Further, accreditation requirestraceability to the SI units of measure-24 F o o d S a f e t y M a g a z i n e