Evaluation the capacity of microbiological laboratories through proficiency testing programs in 2017

In the context of international integration into the WTO, quality assurance in laboratories is an important requirement for providing reliable and highly accurate test results. One of the quality assurance tools currently used by various laboratories is the participation in proficiency testing (TNTT)/ interlaboratory comparisons. In order to assess the capacity of microbiological laboratories throughout the country and respond to the requirements of the customers, the National Institute for Food Control (NIFC) organized 6 biological proficiency testing schemes in food and functional foods in 2017. Based on the statistical processing and z-score calculation, NIFC has made a list of highly satisfactory microbiological laboratories such as such the pass rate of Total Plate Count, E. coli, Coliforms in functional food with 92.9%, 100%, 92.3% ... The highest failure rate of Yeast and Mould in functional food (35.7%) and Coliforms in water (47.8%)... The results showed that the capacity of microbiology laboratories has been increased in both quality and quantity (with the largest number of participants of 89 laboratories).