Enhancing the capabilities of biosafety laboratories through the established accreditation system: Development of the biosafety laboratory accreditation system in China

Abstract

Accreditation is now widely used to attest for laboratory competence. Although accreditation was originally used to assess products in testing laboratories and still plays an increasingly important role in international trade, it has been expanded to include laboratories in many social fields, including forensic science, medicine, and animal quarantine reference. The accreditation process provides basic requirements for achieving global recognition for laboratory reports. This paper introduces the concept of accreditation and discusses the origins and development of the accreditation system in Chinese biosafety laboratories. This study also reveals the important role of this system in national biosafety management through an examination of the 14-year development of the Chinese biosafety laboratory accreditation system.