Maintenance and Enhancement of ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation: Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Minnesota State Dept Of Agriculture, St Paul MN

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Laboratory Services Division is seeking funding under FDA funding opportunity RFA-FD-17-010, ?Maintenance and Enhancement of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Accreditation and Whole Genome Sequencing for State Food Testing Laboratories. (U18).? The MDA laboratory is seeking funding for Competition A only. The MDA Laboratory Services Division will work with the MDA and the FDA to protect the safety of the food supply and enhance public health through a nationally integrated food safety system. Our work will support the goal that microbiological and chemical food analyses performed on behalf of State manufactured food regulatory programs be conducted within the scope of an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory. We will continue our collaboration with the State manufactured food regulatory program and work with them to enhance State surveillance sample collection and testing activities. Through the sharing of high-quality, defensible laboratory results, early identification and regulatory response to adulterants in food will be promoted. In our cooperative agreement proposal, we establish that the MDA laboratory meets all eligibility requirements for this funding opportunity. Further, we demonstrate that the MDA laboratory is well-positioned to achieve the program outcomes outlined in the RFA, including: ? Maintaining the laboratory?s ISO/IEC 17025 scope of accreditation. ? Expanding the scope of ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation to include additional methods supporting the manufactured food regulatory inspection activities of the MDA Food and Feed Safety Division. ? Fully supporting FDA and FERN food safety initiatives through active participation in the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation process; sharing best laboratory practices with federal and state partners; continued participation in all FDA sponsored meetings and calls; and providing analytical information and support. ? Expanding the range of analytes submitted to eLEXNET via the electronic data exchange with the MDA laboratory information management system (LIMS). ? Analyzing at least 75 manufactured food samples collected by the State Manufactured Food regulatory program as part of the Sample Collection and Analysis Project. Project Summary/Abstract - Minnesota Department of Agriculture