A reference with a calibration certificate is not necessarily a Certified Reference Material!

PAR002_123 • Aug 02, 2021

A reference with a calibration certificate is not necessarily a Certified Reference Material! 


Instrument qualification using CRMs from an appropriately accredited supplier is the first step towards data integrity. Indeed, the choice of CRM supplier is as important as the choice of CRM. 


A supplier’s Schedule of Accreditation should be checked to confirm that it includes the reference material to be purchased – it may not! 


Furthermore, it is now recommended that instrument qualification measurements are conducted over the operational range required for the analysis. A laboratory performing measurements over a wide wavelength or photometric range, will likely require several different CRMs to cover each instrument parameter. 


Starna Scientific - Celebrating 20 years of accreditation. 


According to ISO, a fully accredited CRM supplier should be accredited to both ISO 17034:2016 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Standards.   


In 2001, Starna Scientific became the first company worldwide to achieve ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for liquid and glass CRMs for UV-visible spectrophotometry, and in 2006, we became the first and only supplier of spectrophotometry references accredited to both standards. 


All our CRMs are supplied with a certificate showing the traceability of the certified value to Standard Reference Materials (SRM) and a statement of the measurement uncertainty, as required by the ISO definition of a CRM. 


We are committed to the process of continuous improvement demanded by those standards and look forward to another 20 years as the preferred supplier to many of the leading pharmaceutical companies, instrument manufacturers and accredited laboratories worldwide. 

by PAR002_123 02 Aug, 2021
There has always been, and will continue to be, collaboration between individual producers of RMs, and in many countries around the World, you will find national “mirror” committees reflecting and inputting regional decisions into their appropriate ISO representatives. However, many years ago, RM producers recognised that the growing need by the analytical community for a number and variety of RMs as well as a need for the assurance of the quality of RMs called for collaboration at the international level. This has been achieved through REMCO, the Council Committee on Reference Materials of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which celebrated its 40th anniversary in2016. The evolution of this organisation and its conversion into the formal ISOTC 334—Reference Material continues in 2021 and beyond, and the key likely changes are detailed here.
by PAR002_123 02 Aug, 2021
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