IAF and ILAC have released a new episode of Accreditation Matters, ‘The Role of Accreditation in the Public Sector’. This marks the third podcast in our sub-series on the role of accreditation in the food industry.

In this episode, Colin Christmas (IAF Working Group Food Co-Convener, IQNET representative) leads a discussion with Cristina Draghici (Director for Conformity Assessment and Consumer Matters, ISO), Cynthia Woodley (COO and psychometrician, Professional Testing Inc.), Elias Rafoul (Vice Chair, ISO/CASCO; Vice President – Accreditation Services, Standards Council of Canada), and Mike O’Neill (Head of Codex Policy and Strategy, UK Food Standards Agency).

Guests highlight the role of standards and accreditation in building trust in supply chains and facilitating trade. They note how it assists regulators in allocating resources, and reduces regulatory burdens on compliant businesses. They also discuss how accredited certification helps to ensure the competence of food safety workers, and the benefits that accredited persons certification provides to regulators.

The episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music, or for viewing on YouTube.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode!

The Dirección Técnica de Acreditación del Instituto Boliviano de Metrologia (DTA-IBMETRO), Bolivia, is welcomed as an Associate member of ILAC.

We welcome DTA-IBMETRO and look forward to working with our DTA-IBMETRO colleagues.

IAF and ILAC have released the final podcast in our Accreditation Matters sub-series on the role of accreditation in the food industry. This episode highlights the importance of accreditation for intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).

The episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music, or for viewing on YouTube.

In this episode, Colin Christmas (IAF Working Group Food Co-Convener, IQNET representative) leads a discussion with Ali Badarneh (Division Chief, UNIDO), Joseph Wozniak (Head of Trade for Sustainable Development, International Trade Centre), Margarita Corrales (Food Safety Officer, Pan American Health Organization) and Steve Wearne (Chair, Codex Alimentarius Commission).

Guests discuss the importance of accreditation for industrial development and increasing trade opportunities. They highlight the work of their organizations in areas such as strengthening quality infrastructure systems, helping bodies to achieve accreditation, developing standards, and information distribution.

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The latest editions of IAF/ILAC A1:03/2020 “IAF/ILAC MRA Multi-Lateral Mutual Recognition Arrangements (Arrangements): Requirement and Procedures for Evaluation of a Regional Group” and IAF/ILAC A3:03/2020 “IAF/ILAC MRAs: Multi-Lateral Mutual Recognition Arrangements (Arrangements): Template report for the peer evaluation of an Accreditation Body based on ISO/IEC 17011:2017″ have been published and are now available from here.

These documents are used in the evaluations of regional cooperation bodies and accreditation bodies and were revised to remove the ‘Concern’ category of finding. From the date of implementation, findings during an evaluation will be categorised as either nonconformities or comments.

The transition policy published by ILAC and IAF in October 2017 requires all accreditation bodies that are signatories to the ILAC MRA and IAF MLA to have completed the transition to the 2017 version of ISO/IEC 17011 by November 2020.

As a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and the increasing restrictions on travel and mandatory quarantine periods following travel, IAF and ILAC have released a statement providing guidelines regarding the evaluation activities required to ensure all accreditation bodies will be able to achieve this transition in the remaining 7 months. The statement is available from https://www.ilac.solutionsdemo.co.uk/publications-and-resources/joint-ilac-iaf-series/ and joint IAF-ILAC publications area of the IAF website

ILAC and IAF will continue to monitor the advice in relation to the outbreak of COVID-19 to assess the developments and risks and will release additional statements as required in relation to any impacts this outbreak may have on the peer evaluation system in general to ensure the integrity of the MRA and MLA processes are maintained.

ILAC continues to monitor advice to assess the developments and risks following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The situation has led to safety concerns and travel restrictions in some economies that may affect accredited conformity assessment activities.

Accreditation bodies may be considering and/or implementing alternative arrangements to conduct assessments such conducting assessments remotely or rescheduling activities if necessary. These arrangements where required are being put in place to ensure the health and safety of accreditation body staff, assessment team members and laboratory and inspection body staff, whilst not compromising the integrity of the accreditation process. Details of specific actions that may be required by an accreditation body to comply with the advice from the government authorities will be released as and when required within each economy. The contact details for the accreditation bodies that are signatories to the ILAC MRA are available from https://www.ilac.solutionsdemo.co.uk/signatory-search/. This directory is searchable by economy.

In relation to the transition of accreditation bodies to ISO/IEC 17011:2017 a further joint statement from IAF and ILAC will be released later this week.

With regard to the transition of laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 a further statement will be released in mid-April following the receipt and review of the scheduled transition progress reports from the recognised regions later this month.

The following brochures have been revised “IAF/ILAC B7:03/2020 – Accreditation: Supporting the Delivery of Health and Social Care”, “IAF/ILAC B10:03/2020 – Accreditation: Delivering a safer world” and “IAF/ILAC B11:03/2020 – Accreditation: Adding Value to Supply Chains” and are available for your use from here.