What is ISO 17025 testing?

The standard, what it audits, and the distinction that stops it being misread

ISO 17025, in full ISO/IEC 17025, is the international standard setting the general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, and understanding it clears up a phrase that appears on certificates and certification pages across this site. What it audits: an accreditation body assesses a laboratory against the standard, examining the validity of its test methods and whether they are validated for the matrices they are used on, the competence of its staff, the calibration and maintenance of its equipment, its handling of samples, its estimation of measurement uncertainty, its quality management system, its participation in proficiency testing, in which labs analyse the same blind sample and compare results, and its impartiality, then grants accreditation for a defined scope, a schedule listing which tests on which types of sample the lab is accredited to perform, lead in dietary supplements by ICP-MS, say, rather than testing in general. The distinction that stops the phrase being misread: ISO 17025 accredits the laboratory, not the product, so a supplement described as ISO 17025 tested has been analysed by an accredited lab, which is a statement about the competence of the measurement and not a statement that the product passed anything, a certificate from an accredited lab being trustworthy in its numbers whatever the numbers say, and a product's pass or fail being read from the certificate's results against their limits, not from the accreditation. It is also not a manufacturing standard: BRCGS and ISO 22000 certify a factory's food-safety system and ISO 17025 accredits a laboratory's testing, different objects, different bodies, and a brand citing all three has cited its factory and its lab separately, which is the honest way.

Why it matters for a supplement buyer, how to check a lab's scope in the UK, and the phrase read on a certificate

Why it matters is the difference between a number and a reliable number: a heavy-metals result from an accredited laboratory has been produced by a validated method, on calibrated equipment, by competent staff, with a stated uncertainty, under a quality system that an external body has inspected, while the same result from an unaccredited lab may be right and cannot be shown to be, which is why this site's certificate anatomy asks for the lab's accreditation in the header and why the certification programmes' own testing operates under ISO 17025, the credentials guides' point that a certifier's lab competence is itself audited. How to check in the UK: the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, UKAS, is the national accreditation body, and it publishes a searchable public directory of accredited organisations with each laboratory's schedule of accreditation, so that a lab named on a certificate can be looked up and its schedule read for the relevant test, heavy metals in foods and supplements by ICP-MS, prohibited substances in sports supplements, vitamin assays, with a lab absent from the directory being unaccredited whatever its website says and a lab present but without the relevant test on its schedule being accredited for something else. The phrase read on a certificate: a certificate of analysis whose header names an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory with an accreditation number is the strong form, the results on it being reliable measurements read against their limits; a certificate naming a lab without accreditation is a measurement whose reliability is unverified; and a phrase on a product label reading ISO 17025 tested with no laboratory named is a claim about a lab the reader cannot find, completed by the four questions. The worked example's testing is stated as independent batch testing for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium with certificates askable from the brand, and the question this page equips a reader to ask of that certificate, as of any, is which laboratory, and whether it appears in the UKAS directory with metals in supplements on its schedule.

The verdict, a reliable number from a lab you can look up

What is ISO 17025 testing: testing performed by a laboratory accredited to the international competence standard, its methods, staff, equipment, measurement uncertainty, quality system and impartiality audited by an accreditation body for a defined schedule of tests, which makes the numbers on its certificates reliable and says nothing about whether a product passed, accreditation being of the laboratory and not the product and distinct from the BRCGS and ISO 22000 standards that certify a factory, with the UK's UKAS directory the place to look a lab up and read its schedule for the relevant test. The question to ask of any certificate, including the worked example's: Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, certificates askable, £19.99 for 90 days at 22p a day, which laboratory, and is it in the directory with metals on its schedule.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What does ISO 17025 accredited mean?

That an accreditation body has audited a laboratory's test methods, staff competence, equipment, measurement uncertainty, quality system and impartiality and granted accreditation for a defined schedule of tests, making its results reliable measurements.

Does ISO 17025 tested mean a supplement passed?

No: the accreditation belongs to the laboratory, not the product, so an accredited lab's certificate is trustworthy in its numbers whatever they say, and the product's pass or fail is read from those numbers against their limits.

Is ISO 17025 the same as GMP or BRCGS?

No: GMP, BRCGS and ISO 22000 concern a factory's manufacturing and food-safety system, while ISO 17025 concerns a laboratory's testing competence, different objects certified by different bodies.

How do I check whether a lab is ISO 17025 accredited in the UK?

On the UK Accreditation Service's public directory, which lists accredited organisations and each laboratory's schedule of accreditation, a lab absent from it being unaccredited and a lab present being checked for the relevant test on its schedule.

Why does the certifier's lab accreditation matter for a sports certification?

Because the certification is only as good as its measurement: the programmes' own testing operates under ISO 17025, so the screening for prohibited substances is done by a laboratory whose competence has itself been externally audited.

Sources

1. The UK Accreditation Service: UKAS accredits testing laboratories to ISO 17025 for defined scopes and publishes a searchable directory of accredited organisations and their schedules of accreditation. https://www.ukas.com/find-an-organisation/
2. The Informed programmes' operator: Informed Sport and Informed Choice are run by LGC, an accredited laboratory group whose sports-supplement testing operates under ISO 17025 laboratory accreditation, with certified products and batches published on a public database. https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com/about
3. The heavy metals analysis literature: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is the standard method for quantifying lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic in dietary supplements against regulatory maximum levels. PubMed record
4. The supplement manufacturing standards: Good Manufacturing Practice, the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety and ISO 22000 are the facility-level certifications a contract manufacturer holds and a brand may cite. https://www.brcgs.com/our-standards/food-safety/

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