NJ Labs (New Brunswick, NJ) has earned accreditation of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 (Certificate # L21-360) from Perry Johnson Laboratory Accreditation, Inc. (PJLA), for its chemistry and microbiological laboratories. PJLA is a third-party accreditation body offering ISO 17025 to testing and calibration laboratories globally and serves the food, pharmaceutical, cannabis, environmental, medical, automotive and aerospace industries. Accreditation from PJLA means NJ Labs has met the technical and quality benchmarks required for by ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

Amazon heightened the priority of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 when it announced to its sellers of dietary supplements that ISO accreditation is required, along with current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) in order to sell products on its online retail platform. This has created high demand for ISO certification from testing laboratories, when previously it has not been considered the gold standard in quality.

“It’s important that we have added it because our customers need it, but it’s also important to stress that certifications alone are not enough to guarantee product quality,” said Sandra Lee, CEO of NJ Labs.  “Accreditations like ISO effectively cover processes and procedures, yet taken alone, they are not enough because they do not require a level of verification and validation based on a product’s unique formulation and characteristics. To ensure a product is safe and effective for consumers, you must get to this level of due diligence.”

Lee’s warning to companies comes at a time when the supplement industry, including cannabis/CBD, are rushing to market, and regrouping to comply with Amazon’s ISO 17025 requirement. And while ISO does give cannabis and CBD some sort of authority and standard, it is not bulletproof to ensure the product is necessarily safe to go to market, she said.

“I would caution newcomers to the industry to not select an ISO certified testing lab based on speed, convenience or price,” said Lee. “ISO is a good start, but it’s not enough. Companies should achieve other superior third-party certifications including cGMP and USP (U.S. Pharmacopeia) standards. It’s important for companies to know that their products are going to be consistent, reliable, effective and safe. To do this you need more than ISO, because ISO does not look at the formulation of each unique product, but rather it’s a template approach to verification.

“Today it’s ISO certification, but tomorrow it could be something entirely different,” continued Lee, who is one of the few female CEOs in the analytical testing industry. “Companies do not know what will be coming down the pipeline next, as retailers are a moving target when it comes to setting standards and criteria for products. Your best bet is to go with a trusted, full-service testing laboratory that has a track record for success. A lab that will go beyond testing.”

For more information, visit https://njlabs.com.