ZIMBABWE’S Government Analyst Laboratory (GAL) has attained the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 certification which will see improved testing of agrifood products at international standards.
By Kuda Pembere and Nthokozo Gudu
Officiating the handover ceremony of the certification on behalf of the Health and Child Care Ministry permanent secretary Air Commodore Dr Jasper Chimedza, Chief Director for Human Resources, Dr Simon Nyadundu said this certification has helped the Government Analyst Lab improve its capacity.
It is my pleasure to be here officiating at this very important function where we are receiving the certification for the Government Analyst Laboratory. The Government Laboratory adopted the ISO/IEC 17025:2017, a quality management system for analytical and laboratory testing laboratories since 2019.
“The Lab has since improved its capacity through capacitation and training and can now provide its clients with exceptional services. The Government Analyst analyses samples of food and water and other samples which are submitted at the lab. It plays a critical role in fighting endemics and outbreaks such as the cholera outbreak with the country is currently facing,” Dr Chimedza said.
Dr Chimedza noted that the Government Analyst has a huge backlog they need to clear.
“However, we are aware that the Government analyst lab is currently battling to clear a backlog of samples. Almost 1 500 from some deceased cases for toxicology analysis. This is mainly due to the challenges which the lab has faced in terms of equipment which continues to break down because it is too old,” he said.
“However, despite all this, the Lab has not lost its focus of providing a customer-oriented services. So it has worked tirelessly to build a strong relationship of trust with its customers. In this spirit of commitment to quality of analytical services to the public.”
Representing FAO sub-regional coordinator for Southern Africa, Dr Patrice Talla, his deputy Mr Louis Muhigirwa they have a food safety foresight programme geared towards the proactive identification, evaluation and prioritization of emerging trends and drivers within and around agrifood systems that can have food safety implications.
“This will lead to improved and timely strategic planning to better manage potential risks and be ready to take advantage of new opportunities. It is upon this background ladies and gentlemen that institutions like the Government Analyst Laboratory that generate science based data become very critical for capacitation to world class standards,” he said. “ We need ISO accredited laboratories that produce internationally recognised test results to support science-based decision-making during production, processing, transportation, trade and consumption of food.”
Dr Talla also said this accreditation will become a game changer on the agri-food systems scene.
“It is through the European Union funded and FAO run SAFE Project under the Zimbabwe Agriculture Growth Programme (ZAGP) that the Government Analyst Laboratory received support for ISO accreditation. The laboratory is now accredited to ISO 17025 of 2017 and I would like to congratulate to the Government of Zimbabwe, the European Union Delegation who provided funding, Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Government Analyst Laboratory and indeed all the various food value chain players and consumers for attaining this important international accreditation. It is poised to be a game changer in the agri-food systems arena.
“The SAFE project did not only support the accreditation process but also supported both technical and functional capacity building for the laboratory.
“Officers from the Laboratory were trained in different technical areas to improve their competence and state of the art equipment like the UV-vis-Spectrophotometer and microwave digester were also procured to improve turnaround time and quality of laboratory food safety tests,” he said.
Government Analyst Laboratory director Mr Munyaradzi Musiyambiri was elated for having attained this certification.
“We are excited, ecstatic, in cloud nine. It has been a long journey. We have wanted this well before the 2019 cited there but we had false starts because we did not have dedicated funding. Once we had this partnership, government of Zimbabwe also coming in having realised the need for us to be accredited, everything fell in place. And a committed workforce, yes we are here. It is a beautiful feeling.
“The importance is that whatever we produce is now internationally recognized. We have always been doubted. How good are your results? And so on. But with this, it is a certification to say you can do it. We are in the super league,” he said.
He explained that they do analyses of food samples at their laboratory.
“Our mandate is broad, as we look at food. And food basically in various forms and water is actually food. From primary production, we have crops that come in and end up as food.
