The Seed Laboratory (S-lab) of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia is a member of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) for 66 years, i.e. since 1956. The accreditation of S-lab began in 1989 according to the then requirements of ISTA, which included the inventory of analytical procedures, equipment, premises, and personnel. In 2001, S-lab was first accredited in accordance with the new technical ISTA accreditation standard (similar to ISO/IEC 17025) for laboratory requirements in seed sampling and testing. Between 14 and 15 March 2022, S-lab was under its 8th regular ISTA quality audit which is carried out every three years.
The quality system was checked by Stella Marcu, System Auditor at the ISTA Secretariat in Switzerland, and Irena Gera, Technical Auditor from the Plant Health and Seed Inspection Central Laboratory Reference Seed Laboratory in Poznan in Poland.
Florina Palada, Head of Accreditation and Technical Department at ISTA, also took part in the audit.
The S-lab ISTA audit was very successful as no major irregularities were identified that could affect the results of analyses, which means that ISTA approved a re-accreditation of S-lab. The next regular audit is planned for 2025.