2.5.6.1 Product Sampling, Inspection, and Analysis

So I'm looking at the Ed. 7 auditor checklist ... and for laboratories it states:

If external laboratory analysis is used you must demonstrate that such analysis is completed by a laboratory that is accredited to ISO 17025 or equivalent standard methods. These methods may be described in the your specifications indicating that the laboratory is classified as an Approved Supplier in the business under clause 2.4.5.

We have... 25 samples tested by an outside facility every year (12 beef trimming samples for E.coli ... 13 water samples for coliforms) ... and I know for a fact that the lab used is not ISO 17025 accredited.

My question is ... what would constitute an "equivalent standard" .... ?

Are they A2LA (American Association for Laboratory Accredidation) accredited? If so that would be sufficient I believe. Here's a link to A2LA:

http://www.a2la.org/genweb/about.cfm

A2LA would be acceptable. MicroBac for instance is both A2LA and ISO 17025 and ABC Research here in Florida is ISO 17025 while Don Levy Labs is A2LA.

Ahhhh shazbot. Negative on A2LA as well.
Not sure who chose this lab exactly ...

Do you mind me asking if the lab you use has ANY accreditation at all?!? Even some sort of swimming certificate will do at this stage!

I've had trouble with labs before where I've moved to a company and found out the MD's friend from down the road was doing all of the "testing" in their shed for a very reasonable price. Would be interested to know if your lab has ever reported an out of spec result or if your company have ever sent a deliberately tained sample for testing (I send one environmental swab a year of my ass, partly to test the lab, partly for a free medical, partly because it brings a thrill to an otherwise ordinary day).

I should've known something was up when they didn't even have a website...

They're on the USDA/FSIS approved list ... but the "accreditation" list that they provided had nothing of any particular note, other than state licensing mentions.
I've already begun shopping for a new lab to send samples to. Like I mentioned ... we do our own in-house E.coli testing so the frequency at which we have samples analyzed by an outside lab is fairly low... owner's just gonna have to eat the shipping cost.

Oh well.

Very very funny, shea quay - I laughed out loud in the office, much to everyone's consternation!!

Would you like to share the results of your quality sampling with us.....??!!