Maintenance and Enhancement of ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation and Whole Genome Sequencing for State Food Testing Laboratories

Maintenance and Enhancement of ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation and Whole GenomeSequencing for State Food Testing LaboratoriesAbstract:Over the past several years, the food safety system has continually encountered risks andemergencies of significant national concern. Multiple efforts have been undertaken at all levels,including consumers, industry, regulators, and even international organizations, to identify andimplement improvements to the food safety system. These efforts include President's Food SafetyWorking Group; National Integrated Food Safety System; and Food Safety Modernization Act.The MDH Laboratories Administration has been and will continue participate in the cooperativeagreement to advance to goal of national food safety system by supporting and enhancing state'sfood laboratory activities by 1. Ensuring microbiological and chemical food analyses performedon behalf of the State manufactured food regulatory programs are conducted within the scope ofan ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory; 2. Strengthening the collaboration between thelaboratories and State manufactured food regulatory programs; 3. Increasing the number of Statesamples collected and analyzed for surveillance purposes annually; and 4. Developing a strongerinternational rapid surveillance system for pathogen traceback through the GenomeTrakr networkusing a minimum set of metadata fields for all food and environmental isolates.