ITI Chemical and Microbiological lab obtains accreditation

CERTIFICATION: The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) recently reached another milestone in Quality Management when the Chemical and Microbiology Laboratory of ITI obtained ISO 17025:2005.

Accreditation from the newly established Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (SLAB) for chemical and physical analysis of water and waste water, analysis of fish for Histamine and chemical analysis of tea, fertilizer and cashew.

The Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment was established in 2006 under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Establishment of this national body as per the Act No. 32 had been a long felt need in meeting the country's demands to keep up with the requirements of the global trade.

The Chemical and Microbiology Laboratory obtained Accreditation initially from ASTEL, a scheme operated by the Sri Lanka Standards Institute. With the establishment of SLAB, the ASTEL scheme ceased to operate and assessments were carried out by the SLAB in July 2006.

The Chemical and Microbiology Laboratory also holds Accreditation from Swedish Board of Conformity Assessment (SWEDAC) for Physical and Chemical analysis of water and waste water along with microbiological analysis of water and fish since 2002.

ITI has also planned to expand the scope of SLAB Accreditation for Microbiology and rubber product analysis while arrangements have also been made to face SWEDAC assessment to extend the scope to include food analysis and rubber product analysis, in January 2007.