about

1.       About ISRAC

1.1.    ISRAC Summary

1.2.    What is Accreditation?

1.3.    What is Recognition of a GLP Facility? – missing

1.4.    International Activity

1.5.    About ISRAC Organizational Structure

1.6.    Contact Us

1.7.    Publications ISRAC newsletter "Reshuton"

2.       Activity

3.       Training

4.       Documents

1.       About ISRAC

1.1.    ISRAC Summary

The Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority is a corporation established by law (The Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority Law, 1997).
ISRAC's mission is to:
"promote the quality and professional competence of calibration/testing bodies in harmonization with the world for the well-being of the State and its citizens."
Accreditation is defined as an official recognition of the professional ability of an organisation to perform specific tests/calibrations/inspection activities and certification procedures. Accreditation is available to all testing/calibration laboratories as well as to other testing bodies, both in the public and in the private sectors.

In the accreditation process, ISRAC assesses whether:

·         The organisation can professionally and reliably perform specific calibrations/tests, inspections and certifications as detailed in the scope of accreditation submitted by the organisation.

·         The organisation's quality system complies with all the requirements of the relevant international standard, such as ISO/IEC 17025 or ISO 15189 or ISO/IEC 17020 or ISO/IEC 17043 and others, and is fully documented and implemented.

·         The organisation complies with all the requirements of the Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority and with the specific professional requirements in the field in which it operates.

The preparation process of an organisation for accreditation is an ongoing process which includes writing procedures, work plans and implementation of a quality management system and professional management, which will meet the requirements of the relevant standards and those of ISRAC, according to the needs of the organisation's customers. The duration of the process varies between several months up to more than a year, depending on the scope of accreditation requested and the starting point of the organisation seeking accreditation. During the process, questions may arise such as; what does this requirement mean? Is the planned action sufficient? Is the equipment appropriate? Are we assessing the right topic in the right place?

It should be clarified that for obvious ethical reasons, ISRAC employees must abstain from offering consultation, such as answering questions on how to do things. They will willingly answer and clarify any question regarding what should be done, or whether the actions taken are satisfactory.

ISRAC employees will invest all necessary help to ensure that its requirements and the international standards are clear. They will do this to enable testing; examining and inspection bodies in the State of Israel to adapt to the requirements and to provide their customers with world-class service.

Contact details and current and updated information can be found on ISRAC's website www.israc.gov.il.

1.2.    What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is defined as an official recognition in the professional ability and competence of the organization to perform examinations, reviews, tests, measurements and calibrations according to its client's needs. Accreditation is given to test methods that are performed according to standards, specifications of other normative documents, or methods developed by the organization. Accreditation is available to all types of organisations, testing (calibration/testing laboratories), supervising and examining bodies, whether they are part of a factory or part of the public or private sector.
In addition accreditation enables the organization to evaluate the work it performs in comparison with international standards. Accreditation is a managerial and marketing tool that offers the organization and its managers a way to ensure the credibility of their results and the efficient function of the organization.

These are the reasons why regulatory bodies and big buyers in Israel and all over the world prefer using accreditation in their process of recognition of assessment bodies or their results.

Receiving accreditation from an objective national body provides official recognition and strong evidence that the organization’s management has taken every possible precaution in order to ensure that its quality system is well implemented in the organization, thus providing high quality performance in tests/ inspections and certification processes.  Such evidence may come to the organization’s aid in court or when dealing with insurance companies.

In many cases, accreditation gives the organization an advantage over its competitors in public tenders commissioned by large bodies and especially those commissioned by governmental bodies. Currently, the following government regulators require accreditation from laboratories as a condition for working with them: the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor (standardization chief supervisor and works chief supervisor), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of National Infrastructures.  Laboratory certification is required by the Mandatory Tenders Law.
In addition, all government tenders relating to testing require laboratory accreditation where relevant.

Important! Accreditation provides official recognition of the organization’s abilities, thus ensuring its clients and large customers in the market, such as law enforcement agencies, of receiving trustable, high quality and comparable results.

Read more about the accreditation process…

1.3.    International activity

The Israel Accreditation Authority started out as the Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority, a statutory corporation established by law in April 1997. The establishment of ISRAC is the result of the need for transparent, uniform and objective criteria for assessing the professional competence of laboratories. The world trade agreements (signed under the World Trade Organization WTO) also support the existence of a national laboratory accreditation body. ISRAC is the official authority, by law, responsible for laboratory accreditation in Israel. ISRAC’s purpose is to allow harmonization and mutual recognition between the State of Israel and other countries regarding measurements, calibrations and testing. In addition, ISRAC aids the Israeli consumer in need of laboratory services and testing, calibration and measurement organisations, directly or indirectly.

ISRAC is a full recognized member of the international organisation ILAC. As such, ISRAC is obligated, like all other members of the organisation, to operate according to the international standard regarding accreditation bodies:
ISO/IEC 17011; Conformity assessment – General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies.
ISRAC has signed a mutual recognition agreement with ILAC and the European Accreditation (EA) establishing that the accreditation bodies that are part of the arrangement shall recognize the test results produced by any laboratory accredited by ISRAC. The number of countries that are part of the arrangement is constantly on the rise and the list of countries and the agreement itself can be viewed on the ILAC website www.ilac.org or ISRAC’s website www.israc.gov.il, subdirectory links.

Read more in the common position document…

ISRAC is the designated representative of the State of Israel for the recognition of test facilities working according to GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) principles. The directive required for recognition according to GLP principles is OECD-GLP. The state of Israel has a mutual recognition agreement regarding GLP with the European community and the OECD, thus ensuring mutual recognition from countries signatories to these agreements.

1.4.    About ISRAC Organizational Structure

The Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority is managed by a public council, which is made up of seven members, whose chairman is the representative of the Israeli Council for Higher Education and its members represent government ministries, organizations who use laboratory services and delegates of the accredited laboratories.

Organizational Structure