Principles

The MicroVal initiative has created the MicroVal Rules and Certification Scheme. It is a third party certification scheme for the validation of alternative methods for microbiological analysis of foods, animal feeding stuffs, beverages (excluding water analysis) and food environmental samples.

Certification according to these rules and this certification scheme is based on the European Standard EN/ISO 16140.

The MicroVal certification procedure is based on three core principles.

• The first principle of the certification is to perform a method comparison study of the alternative method against the reference method, followed by an inter-laboratory method performance study of the both the alternative and the reference method.
• The second principle is that the quality organisation of the manufacturer where the materials are produced must be in conformity with quality assurance requirements. The frame of these requirements is the EN 29002 standard (ISO 9002).
• The third principle is a regular verification of the quality of the certified methods which is made after the certification is granted.

MicroVal Rules and Certification Scheme

The latest version of the MicroVal Rules and Certification Scheme are available for download here.