Public Health Laboratory without accreditation since 2021

For the past three years Malta’s Public Health Laboratory has been operating without accreditation in breach of EU law.

The accreditation of Malta’s national laboratory was suspended in 2021 due to “structural deficiencies” in its current premises in Evans Buildings in Valletta.

EU law requires national laboratories where official testing on matters like food safety are conducted, to be accredited based on parameters set by the  International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

Although tests following international protocols are still regularly conducted in the laboratory, lack of accreditation is hampering the full implementation of official controls on food safety, a report by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety states.

The report based on an audit carried out in January 2024 deals with shortcomings in official controls related to the microbial safety of food of non-animal origin.

The absence of an accredited national laboratory is listed as one of Malta’s main shortcomings in this sector.

Sources told MaltaToday that although official testing is still being rigorously conducted, the lack of accreditation poses problems at an international level where tests are conducted in the certainty offered by accreditation.

In its reply to the audit, the government has committed itself to present a plan to relocate the laboratory from Evans Building - now earmarked for a hotel - to a more suitable premises by the end of the year.

Moreover, the authorities are also working  to obtain accreditation within the current premises and have committed themselves to finalise an “outline of requirements to regain accreditation” by the end of the third quarter of 2024.

In the meantime, the authorities are also working to seek a ‘proxy’ representative  for the National Laboratory until the laboratory is again accredited.

The Public Health Laboratory currently consists of two main sections, namely chemistry and microbiology laboratories.

The laboratory performs official testing on food, animal feed and hygiene testing as well as the investigation of suspected food poisoning and food poisoning outbreaks, food and environmental surveillance  and food authenticity investigations. The PHL is also the national reference laboratory for biological parameters like Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and Legionella amongst other sources of microbiological contamination.

The FVO report acknowledges that even without accreditation the laboratory still operates “a quality management system in compliance with ISO 17025 requirements”.

But according to the report the accreditation of the  Public Health Laboratory is required “in order to ensure sound and reliable results”.