NOW® Receives ISO Accreditation for In-House Analytical and Microbiological Testing Labs
NOW® has received ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation from the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) for both the analytical and microbiological laboratories. The accreditation demonstrates that NOW meets technical and quality benchmarks as required by ISO/IEC 17025:2017.
The process of achieving ISO accreditation includes passing a comprehensive assessment and review of the lab’s quality management system and competence to perform specific tests. This accreditation isn’t typically something that in-house labs pursue, but rather something that contract labs will seek in order to show some measure of competency. Given different regulatory requirements throughout the world, and the recent discussion of ISO accreditation for dietary supplement sellers on Amazon, NOW decided to add ISO accreditation to their existing range of third party certifications.
“NOW has spent a lot of time and resources over the last decade building up our in-house lab capabilities and expertise to ensure that the data coming out of our labs has integrity, which is crucial because we make regulatory and business decisions every day based on this data,” said Aaron Secrist, Executive Vice President of Quality, R&D and Operations, NOW Health Group. “We have built our in-house labs into a very strong competitive advantage, not only because of the increased ability for us to test the incoming ingredients and finished products much faster than a contract lab ever could, but we are also able to validate our test methods against each of our thousand or so specific finished product matrices, something contract labs could never do for each company they service in an economical way.”
The scopes of accreditation NOW received includes arsenic speciation in raw materials and finished products by HPLC-ICP-MS; determination of acid value by titration; determination of peroxide value by FoodLabFat; metal and mineral testing by ICP-MS (arsenic, cadmium, iodine, lead and mercury); and multi-pesticide residue analysis by GC-MS/MS for 195 pesticides.
“We chose the scopes that we did because I have seen many labs pick the easiest and most basic test method and matrix in order to be able to say that they are an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab, even if the majority of the testing they do is outside of the scope of their accreditation,” Secrist said. “ We wanted the accreditation to be meaningful, so we chose some of the most complex methods that we run, most of which have been developed in house, as well as a couple of simple ones.”
These are just the first of many methods NOW plans to add to the scope of accreditation.
NOWs Accreditation certificate (#6253.01) to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 may be viewed here. The accreditations are valid until June 30, 2023.
To learn more about NOW and its products, visit www.nowfoods.com. To stay up-to-date on NOW news, follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
ABOUT NOW®:
Founded by Elwood Richard in 1968 on the belief that natural is better, NOW has grown from a small family operation into one of the most highly respected manufacturers in the natural products industry. Still a family-owned company today, NOW provides customers with a comprehensive approach to wellness by offering more than 1,400 dietary supplements, functional foods, sports nutrition and health and beauty products. NOW is committed to offering safe, affordable products of the highest quality, and is a highly regarded advocate in the natural products industry. After more than 50 years in the natural products industry, NOW remains committed to its original mission – to provide value in products and services that empower people to lead healthier lives.
