ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation: what it means and what it does not
ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard for testing laboratory competence. Accreditation is a third-party audit against it. We operate to its expectations and are not accredited; here is exactly what each phrase means.
ISO/IEC 17025 is a standard, not a certificate. It sets requirements for a testing laboratory’s impartiality, personnel, equipment, method validation, measurement traceability, handling of samples, quality control and reporting. A laboratory can follow all of it without anyone checking. Accreditation is when an accreditation body (in the United States, A2LA, ANAB, PJLA and others) audits the laboratory against the standard and lists specific methods on a published scope.
Aligned, not accredited
We use that phrasing on every page because the two things are different, and a buyer deciding on a laboratory should know which one they are getting.
What accreditation does tell you
- An independent assessor visited and reviewed the quality system, personnel records and a sample of test records.
- The laboratory participated in proficiency testing for the methods on its scope.
- The scope document lists exactly which methods and matrices were assessed. Methods not on the scope are not covered by the accreditation.
- Reassessment happens on a cycle, usually every two years, with surveillance in between.
What accreditation does not tell you
- That a particular certificate was produced under the accredited method. Check the scope and the certificate’s method line.
- That the sample tested was the sample you sent. Accreditation covers the laboratory’s process, not the shipping and custody before receipt.
- That the result is public or checkable. Most accredited laboratories issue private PDFs with no lookup.
- That the instrument was in calibration on the day. That is in the laboratory’s records, which accreditation requires but does not publish.
How to evaluate a laboratory either way
| Ask for | Accredited lab | Gold Standard Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of methods | Published scope document | Method list per service page, with instrument IDs |
| Calibration records | Available on audit | Published on the quality page, filterable by instrument |
| Proficiency testing | Required on scope | Reference standards lot-traced; inter-laboratory comparisons published as run |
| Certificate verification | Usually by email to the lab | Public lookup by accession, SHA-256 hash |
| Chain of custody evidence | Internal records | Opening video and photographs on the certificate page |
Our position
We intend to pursue accreditation for the methods with the highest client demand once the laboratory has twelve months of records under the current quality system. Until a scope certificate exists, we will not describe ourselves as accredited, and no certificate we issue will carry an accreditation mark.
