Accreditation

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Quality Management System of the National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment Institute (NFVRAI) is established and accredited according to LST EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

Quality Management System ensures that the methods of the tests performed in the NFVRAI meet the requirements of the European Union. Accreditation is granted by internationally recognized accreditation body – National Accreditation Bureau (NAB) under the Ministry of Economy of Lithuanian Republic. NAB is full right member of European accreditation (EA), a full member of International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) signatory.

National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment institute is licensed to use the International laboratory accreditation cooperation label – ILAC, which means that the NFVRAI test results are world recognized.

The maintenance of the Quality Management System is controlled by the internal quality audits and supervised by the Accreditation Body during the annual external audits of the NFVRAI. Each year the competence of the NFVRAI and the qualification of the personnel are checked by participating in proficiency testing and interlaboratory comparison testing. Regular training is organized to support and improve the competence of the NFVRAI’s personnel, taking into account the employees’ needs and the new challenges of the NFVRAI.

ACCREDITATION SCOPE

Annex to the Accreditation Certificate No. LA.01.139

Actual scope of accreditation

NATIONAL REFERENCE LABORATORY 

In accordance with the Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products (Official Controls Regulation), the National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment Institute is designated as National reference laboratory in the Republic of Lithuania for food, feed and animal health issues.

The main task of a national reference laboratory is to give scientific and technical support to the competent authorities. A national reference laboratory is also obliged, for the purpose of quality assurance, to participate in comparative inter-laboratory tests with other national reference laboratories. These tests are conducted by the relevant competent reference laboratory at European level - the Community reference laboratory of the European Commission. The institute as a National reference laboratory provides expertise to the governmental bodies, implements new test methods, perform the quality control and organizes inter -laboratory tests for the official laboratories, acts as an arbitrator in case of disputes.

The Institute has been nominated as a National Reference Laboratory in 39 areas (Food and Feed; Animal Health).

Printing version of Accreditation Certificate (pdf.)