Food legislation requires operators in the food sector to analyze in-house control samples in a nationally approved laboratory and that has been the basis of this thesis. The commissioner of this topic was ice cream producer, Nestlé Finland, Turenki factory.

To be able to harmonize and cut turn-a-round times of analyses, which are in straight relation with release time of produced finished products, it has been evaluated to be beneficial to apply Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira’s approval for analysis defined both in food legislation and HACCP plans. As usage of external, commercial laboratories cause costs to food sector operators, so cost saving is one of the aims.

During the project both Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira’s and FINAS Finnish Accreditation Service’s requirements for Finnish in-house laboratories were studied according to international standard ISO/IEC 17025. Based on requirements the operator’s current situation was mapped and the laboratory quality manual was created. One outcome of the thesis was an action log, which was separated from this public thesis.

The conclusion of the thesis is finalized and a laboratory quality manual for the operator in food sector implemented. Next steps for the operator will be approval evaluation by FINAS Finnish Accreditation Service and approval application to Evira.