Today's food laboratories remain largely free of regulatory oversight. That is about to change with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) issuance of a final rule¹ establishing a program for the testing of food, in certain circumstances, by accredited laboratories. There should be no delay in the implementation of this well-constructed rule.

Not only does this final rule provide specific quality standards and assurances to a segment of food testing, but it also opens the door for all laboratories to adhere to these essential elements. FDA said as much in the final rule: "We expect that creating model laboratory standards based on ISO/IEC [International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission] 17025:2017 accreditation may encourage other laboratories to work toward these standards, including accreditation."