admin
Rejoice Makoni and Mutsawashe Mashandure
Herald Correspondents
The attainment of ISO 17025:2017 accreditation by the Government Analyst Laboratory [GAL] is a testament to its commitment to quality management systems in compliance with the NDS1 as we move towards attaining an upper middle-income economy by 2030, a senior official has said.
In a speech read on his behalf by the chief director human resources and administration in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Simon Nyadundu, at a handover ceremony of quality management system accreditation certificate by Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service [SADCAS] in Harare yesterday, Permanent Secretary Air Commodore Jasper Chimedza said the achievement reinforced the Ministry’s focus to maintain quality that met global standards.
“The achievement of IS0 accreditation by GAL is a testament to its commitment to quality management systems incompliance with NDS1 as we move towards an upper middle-income society by 2030. With this achievement, Government Analysts’ customers can be rest assured that they are receiving services of the highest quality, and that GAL is dedicated to continuously improving its processes to meet the clients’ evolving needs,” he said.
“Accreditation provides increasingly accepted results worldwide in a transparent, and non-discriminatory manner to assure competency of conformity assessment service providers for both voluntary and regulatory areas.
“It eliminates the need for repetitive testing, certification, and inspection. It provides reliable and impartial basis for sound decision-making. It is a means of demonstrating competency to one’s clients. It is an effective marketing tool one’s guarantee for reliable and comparable conformity assessment results. Indeed, accreditation Increases reliability of products,” he said.
In the spirit of commitment to quality of analytical services to the public, the department applied and received the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation after a successful assessment by Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service.
GAL thus met the SADCAS accreditation requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.
GAL director Mr Munyaradzi Masiyambiri said the accreditation of GAL was very crucial.
“The accreditation means a lot to the country because everything we produce will now be internationally recognised. People also need to be satisfied that the food has the nutrients we need and is free of contaminants,” he said.
Speaking at the same event FAO representative Mr Louis Mutugirwa hailed GAL for its accreditation.
“It is my pleasure to represent FAO in celebrating this great achievement, the ISO accreditation of the Government Analyst Laboratory.
“Today is an important day to the Food Control System of Zimbabwe as one of its regulatory laboratories for food safety and food quality officially attains accreditation to ISO 17025 of 2017 from The Southern Africa Development Community Accreditation Services (SADCAS),” he said.
“We need ISO accredited laboratories that produce internationally recognised test results to support science-based decision-making during production, processing, transportation, trade and consumption of food.”
Online Reporter