ISO/IEC 17025:2005 ACCREDITATION FOR STATE FOOD TESTING LABORATORIES - SOUTH CARO

The South Carolina Bureau of Laboratories (SC BOL) serves as the primary servicing laboratory for state manufactured food regulatory programs within the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control and the SC Department of Agriculture. The purpose of this project is for the SC BOL Food Microbiology Laboratory to achieve and maintain ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation by an internationally recognized accreditation body to support efforts to establish a nationally integrated food safety system. The BOL maintains a quality management system in its Office of Quality. The integration of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards into this existing system will be managed through a Lean Six Sigma DMEDI process that will provide management tools to keep the project on track and allow us to assess program progress, evaluate the process for preparing for full implementation of ISO standards, and monitor process implementation. During the first year of this agreement, the SC BOL will conduct a gap analysis to facilitate the establishment of a project plan, contract with an independent ISO consultant, and hire and train necessary staff to manage the process involved in integrating ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards into our current quality management system. In subsequent years, the SC BOL plans to bring processes and protocols up to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards according to the project plan, continue to fully support the FERN, participate in annual proficiency testing programs, continue to train staff in ISO and other microbiological procedures, update facilities to increase specimen processing capacity, pursue electronic data exchange through eLEXNET, and ultimately obtain ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation by June 30, 2017.