Vermont Department of Health Laboratory ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation Maintenance and Enhancement

Vermont State Agency Of Human Services, Waterbury VT

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary The Vermont Department of Health Laboratory (VDHL) is located at 359 South Park Drive in Colchester, VT. The mission of VDHL is to promote health and prevent disease by providing quality analytical services, leadership in laboratory science and support to public health and environmental activities. VDHL, as the sole servicing laboratory, is committed to strengthening the food safety system in Vermont by supporting the regulatory and surveillance activities of the Vermont Department of Health Food and Lodging Program (VDHFL), who holds the State Manufactured Food Regulatory Program contract with FDA. To support these activities, VDHL must maintain and enhance its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, obtained in September 2016, to ensure all test data generated is valid and defensible. VDHL is requesting funds in the amount of $145,000 to be used from July 2019 through June 2020 to maintain and enhance its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. This achievement will be accomplished by: ? Retaining a currently funded microbiologist to perform microbiological testing, hiring a consultant to assist in the transition to the 17025:2017 standard version, training of personnel, and performing internal and external audits. ? Addition of the FDA Listeria monocytogenes method to its scope of accreditation and verification of new high-risk food types. ? Participation in FDA?s initiatives in their support of ISO/IEC accreditation of laboratories. These activities will include, but not limited to, participating in an annual face-to-face meeting, in a Food Emergency Response (FERN) proficiency test event, in FERN bimonthly/quarterly teleconferences at the regional and national level, and purchasing equipment for the food testing program to streamline the testing process. ? Collaboration between VDHL and VDHFL to collect and analyze the number and type of surveillance food and environmental samples that are described in the sample collection and analysis plan. This plan is signed by both parties and states the types of food, target analytes, frequency of collection and the number of samples that will be collected annually (at least 75 samples), and sampling methodology and transportation of samples to VDHL, including the use of chain-of-custody. ? Automatically transfer the test result data generated by the food laboratory program into eLEXNET (FDA?s electronic laboratory exchange network) at the time the report is released to the customer. The outcome of these activities ensures that any food analyses performed by VDHL are conducted within the scope of an ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, strengthens the collaboration between VDHL and VDHFL, increases the number of surveillance samples collected and analyzed annually, effectively advancing the goal of building an Integrated National Food Safety System.