Blue Analytics AS was July 1, 2022 accredited in accordance with the ISO 17025 standard which deals with general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. The accreditation applies to PCR analysis of selected disease-causing viruses and bacteria in Atlantic salmon and Rainbow trout.
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is an official assessment and recognition of a company’s competence, integrity, and independence. The purpose of accreditation is to establish confidence that the organisation delivers reliable analytical results using documented and quality assured methods.
In Norway, the national government agency, Norwegian Accreditation ensures that the requirements of the ISO standard comply through regular audits of the company.
Norwegian Accreditation collaborates with international organisations that are responsible for accreditation in other countries. This provides security for customers who purchase the accredited services both nationally and internationally by performing according to the same high-quality standard.
Accredited laboratories are subject to regular inspections by competent external control bodies. Test reports and certificates can thus to a greater extent be accepted in trade of for example biological material between countries.
“Being accredited after ISO 17025, confirms that we have a management system that works well and hold the competence and the resources required to comply with the requirements of the standard. For our customers, this means extra security that the analysis results are of high quality based on an internationally recognized standard.”
Anette H. Kausland, Quality Manager at Blue Analytics
What requirements must be met to be accredited?
Accreditation requires the company to govern in accordance with management and quality systems. Areas that are revised include organizational structure, impartiality, competence, traceability, agreements with customers, treatment of deviations and quality assurance of methods. The accreditation also contributes to the maintenance and updating of the quality system in the company. The requirements for the accreditation are described in NS-EN ISO / IEC 17025, in addition there are separate requirements and guidance documents published by Norwegian Accreditation.
Accreditation of PCR analyses methods
There is a selection of our analyses methods in PCR diagnostics that are accredited. You can see these analyses here in our accreditation document (PDF) or on the Norwegian Accreditation’s website.
Those of our analysis methods that are not accredited also holds a high standard, and demand will determine whether we will seek to include more analyses in the scope of accreditation in the long term. Blue Analytics has registration number TEST 324.