Food and Drug Dep’t closer to meeting stringent US food safety requirement

Director of the GAFDD, Minister of Public Marlan Cole

The Government Analyst-Food & Drugs Department (GA-FDD) of the Ministry of Public Health has taken a major step in the direction of meeting the laboratory testing standards necessary to satisfy the safety requirements of the United States’ Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the 2010 legal standards benchmark for the importation of foods into that country, the Department’s Director, Marlan Cole told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week. 

The GA-FDD, according to Cole, is about to secure International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17025 laboratory accreditation, the single most important standard for calibration and testing laboratories around the world.

Laboratories that are accredited to this international standard have demonstrated that they are technically competent and able to produce precise and accurate test and/or calibration data.