European Union laboratory quality assurance

This article deals with legal requirements in the European Union on basic principles of laboratory quality assurance for official notification to the EC Commission and on method validation concerning official laboratories. Widespread discussions and activities on measurement uncertainty are in progress, and the European validation standards for official purposes may serve as a basis for world-wide efforts on quality harmonization of analytical results. Although much time has already been spent, definitions and require-... 

Standards and standardization play a major role in reliability assurance. Only by using standard methods for product quality control can a product be introduced into the market. Quality standards are very important, especially for food analysis. Recommended standard (or etalon in French) matrices as well as methods are defined in terms of accuracy and precision.246 The European Union has prescribed strict quality standards for laboratories and the methods of analysis to be used in laboratories when carrying out official food quality control. 

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