ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation: what it means for you
When you commission a laboratory test, you are trusting the result. ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard that sets out what a competent testing laboratory looks like: how it manages its equipment, validates its methods, handles samples, and reports results. Accreditation to this standard means an independent body has audited the lab against those requirements and found it compliant.
What the standard actually requires
ISO/IEC 17025 covers two broad areas: management requirements and technical requirements. The management side covers things like document control, handling of non-conforming work, and complaints procedures. The technical side covers method validation, equipment calibration, measurement uncertainty, and the competence of the staff running the tests.
Accreditation is not a one-time certificate. The accreditation body carries out regular surveillance audits and a full reassessment on a defined cycle. The lab must also participate in external proficiency testing schemes, where blind samples with known values are sent to the lab and the results are compared against the consensus of all participating labs.
Why it matters when you are choosing a lab
If your results are going to be used for a regulatory submission, a property transaction, a legal dispute, or a food safety audit, the receiving party will almost certainly require the analysis to have been carried out by an accredited laboratory. A result from a non-accredited lab may be technically accurate but will not be accepted.
For private individuals testing their own water or soil out of personal concern, accreditation is less of a formal requirement but still a meaningful quality indicator. It means the method has been validated, the equipment is calibrated, and the result has been produced under a documented quality system rather than informally.
How to check a lab's accreditation scope
In Japan, the main accreditation body for testing laboratories is JAB (Japan Accreditation Board). Every accredited lab has a schedule of accreditation published on the JAB website, which lists the specific tests and matrices the accreditation covers. It is worth checking that the specific test you need is within the lab's accredited scope, not just that the lab holds accreditation in general.
Lank CoreLab's JAB accreditation schedule is available on request and is included in the accreditation pack sent to all new clients.
If you have questions about whether a particular test needs to be carried out by an accredited laboratory for your specific purpose, that is exactly the kind of question worth asking before you submit a sample rather than after.