This forum is my "go to" place whenever I have a question or issue. I love this site as it is extremely helpful. That being said, I am in need of help.
We are planning on becoming SQF certified. SQF says that the labs we use must be ISO certified. We are planning on subcontracting out an in-house kill step validation. The contractor plans to spike the product with a surrogate (Enterococcus) and then analyze for the microbe before and after heat treatment to demonstrate a 5-log reduction. The lab they will use is their own, and is ISO certified. However, the certification does not include Enterococcus analysis. They say that the ISO 17025 scope only covers routine laboratory analysis and that there are not always standard methods for research so they cannot be ISO accredited against them.
Is the lack of ISO certification going to be an issue for the validity of the validation?
Thank you for your help!!