Iso/iec Accreditation and Whole Genome Sequencing For State Testing Laboratories

The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (NYSDAM) has an expansive food 4 safety inspection and regulatory laboratory testing program. The New York State Food 5 Laboratory (Food Laboratory), a division within the NYSDAM, has the mission to provide expert 6 state of the art analytical testing in support of food safety programs in New York State. The 7 Food Laboratory, through food testing, provides support to the divisions of Food Safety and 8 Inspection, and Milk Control and Dairy Services. It is the primary servicing laboratory for the 9 New York manufactured food regulatory program and is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025:200510 standard. The Food Laboratory has comprehensive testing programs for foodborne pathogens11 and chemical residues/toxic elements in food and beverages.1213 If funded for Competition A, the Food Laboratory will maintain a quality management system14 that is in compliance with the managerial and technical requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and15 continue to be accredited by a recognized accreditation body. It will also continue to expand the16 number of methods and technologies within our scope of accreditation, support training of17 laboratory staff, and maintain current staff resources to the laboratory Quality Assurance Unit.1819 If funded for Competition B, New York State Food Laboratory will maintain the Research20 Collaboration Agreement with CFSAN for the Genome Trackr network. It will continue to21 sequence a mixture of four hundred (400) or more foodborne related bacterial isolates and22 deposit results, including the metadata, in real-time to the NCBI-NIH curated national database23 for enteric pathogen genomes, in coordination with FDA CFSAN. It will also seek partnership24 with universities, government agencies, and other stakeholders to support the collection of25 isolates.2627 The NYSDAM fully supports FDA?s initiative of an integrated food safety system and is engaged28 in participating in these collaborative projects that aim to improve and optimize the nation?s food29 safety system.30