Verifying the lab itself: ISO 17025, A2LA and ILAC

Before trusting a report, check that its author exists and answers to someone. Laboratory accreditation is public, searchable, and takes five minutes to verify.

What ISO/IEC 17025 actually is

ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard for testing and calibration laboratories — it covers competence, method validity and impartiality. A laboratory does not simply declare it; an accreditation body audits the lab and grants accreditation for a DEFINED SCOPE of methods. Both parts matter: accredited, and accredited for the kind of analysis on your certificate.

Who accredits the accreditors

National accreditation bodies do the auditing — A2LA and PJLA in the United States, DAkkS in Germany, UKAS in the United Kingdom, and their counterparts elsewhere. Most belong to the ILAC mutual recognition arrangement, which is why an accreditation from one recognised body travels internationally. Each body runs a public registry: search the laboratory's name, and you should find a certificate number, a validity date and the accredited scope.

The five-minute check

Take the laboratory name from the COA header. Find the lab's own site and its claimed accreditation number. Then confirm that number in the ACCREDITOR'S registry — not on the lab's site alone. Check the scope covers the analysis type on your certificate, and that the accreditation is current. A lab that is real but unaccredited is a judgement call; a lab that claims accreditation its accreditor has never heard of is not.

What accreditation does not mean

Accreditation speaks to the laboratory's competence and process — it does not confirm that a particular certificate is genuine, that the sample came from your batch, or that the document in your hand was not recycled. Those checks stay yours: they are the batch match and the failure modes in spotting bad COAs.

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