Concerning: Federal Contributions to Long Term Sustainability of an ISO/IEC 17025 Accredited State Food and Feed Laboratory System

Whereas, food analysis performed on behalf of state food regulatory agencies should be conducted within the scope of an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory, and

Whereas, laboratory analysis from ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratories will increase the analytical capacity for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state food programs and enhance efforts to protect the food supply through a nationally integrated food safety system (IFSS), and

Whereas, the FDA created the ISO/IEC 17025 Cooperative Agreement Program (CAP) to support State actions to become accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 standards for microbiological and chemical food analysis for manufactured food regulatory programs (and animal feed through the Animal Feed Regulatory Program Standards Cooperative Agreement), and

Whereas, FDA is currently using the Cooperative Agreement to assist 36 State Food Laboratories to achieve accreditation or enhance accreditation to support manufactured food regulatory programs, and

Whereas, the initial CAP is scheduled to terminate at the end of FFY 2017 and the ability of many State Food Laboratories may be compromised to achieve and/or maintain accreditation due to state funding constraints, and

Whereas, a reduction in numbers of accredited food laboratories will reduce the analytical capacity for FDA and state food programs to protect the food supply through an IFSS, therefore be it

Resolved, that AFDO request FDA to work with State Food Laboratories to identify an appropriate level of federal support for state laboratory CAPs, which may be necessary to help State Food Laboratories sustain and enhance ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation and ensure a robust system of accredited laboratories supporting an IFSS.