Description
The EU and EFTA have agreed that a technical test or analysis of a product performed in a European laboratory must be accepted throughout Europe, provided that the laboratory meets certain formulated requirements and thereby achieves a seal of quality: accreditation.
Requirements for accredited companies are laid down in international agreements such as European cooperation for Accreditation (EA), International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Which standards to follow depends on the area to be accredited. International agreements on mutual acceptance of accreditation mean that an accreditation in Norway will be equivalent to similar accredited analyses from a laboratory in e.g., Sweden. An accredited laboratory must comply with the requirements of the standard EN ISO / IEC 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories and EA- 4/09 G:2022 Accreditation for Sensory Testing Laboratories. Accreditation of sensory methods means that each analysis must be under control. The laboratory must have defined limits that give the same result and, when possible, give comparable results with other laboratories. EA-4/09 G:2022 deals with sensory analyses and what is important when accrediting them. It has been prepared by European cooperation for Accreditation (EA), Laboratory Committee, Food Testing Task Force and is a supplement to EN ISO / IEC 17025. The document can be considered a «working document» and is useful for both sensory judges and sensory laboratories such as preparing for accreditation.
NMKL procedure 6 Ed. 1 was published in 1998.
NMKL procedure 6 Ed. 2 was published in 2016.
NMKL procedure 6 Ed. 3 was published in 2023 in English and replaces the previous Danish and Finnish versions. In addition to updating the references, recommendations related to GDPR is included.