This week, Swedac and the Icelandic Patent Office carried out a quality audit of Matís' research methods, and such audits were carried out annually at IFL and the Environment Agency's Laboratory for many years.
The audit took place on 15.10. 2007 at Matís laboratory at Skúlagata 4 and on 18.10. In 2007, a similar audit was carried out at Matís' branch in Neskaupstaður. The Matís branch in Akureyri, on the other hand, carried out a quality audit in April this year.
According to Margrét Geirsdóttir, Matís 'quality manager, the audit went well and Matís' laboratory now has 27 accredited microbial methods and 7 chemical methods on its list. These are various microbiological studies on food, water, feed, environmental samples, medicinal products and substances, as well as specialized chemical measurements on food, water and environmental samples and measurements of pesticides in vegetables and fruit.
Accreditation is a recognition that a company has the best practices and has the technical ability to ensure that the measurements made there meet all international requirements in relation to the quality environment, work rules and strict quality control. The accreditation is based on the ISO 17025 standard on laboratory activities, but the provision on accreditation was introduced in an Icelandic regulation in 1994.
There are The Patent Office and Swedac, the Swedish Accreditation Agency, which grants the Matís accreditation. With an annual visit, the accreditation body examines whether the quality system and the measurement methods used in chemical and microbial research meet the obligations required for accreditation and described in the ISO 17025 standard.
In addition, the Matís laboratory is accredited by the New York State Department of Health for microbial measurements in bottled water.
List of Matís' accredited research methods (pdf file)
The picture shows three Swedac representatives along with some employees at Matís' Food Safety Department on Skúlagata.