Title 7 — AgricultureRelease 119-73

§138a National Laboratory Accreditation Program

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 6A— - NATIONAL LABORATORY ACCREDITATION › § 138a

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates a National Laboratory Accreditation Program that the Secretary must run. Under rules set by the Secretary of Health and Human Services after talking with the Secretary and the EPA Administrator, the program will set minimum standards for labs, require rules for lab directors and staff, and require quality-assurance procedures. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will approve state agencies or private, nonprofit groups to act as accrediting bodies, and must oversee them and may obtain their records and any certified lab records. To get accredited, a laboratory must (1) submit an application to the Secretary and (2) follow terms set by the Secretary and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The program does not apply to (1) government agency labs; (2) corporate labs that test only for their own company or wholly owned subsidiaries and do not make public claims; (3) partnership labs that test only for partners and do not make public claims; or (4) noncommercial labs that test pesticide residues for research or internal quality control for the person who started the testing.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §138a

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary shall administer a National Laboratory Accreditation Program under which laboratories that request accreditation and conduct residue testing of agricultural products, or that make claims to the public or buyers of agricultural products concerning chemical residue levels on agricultural products, shall be determined to meet certain minimum quality and reliability standards.

(b)The Secretary of Health and Human Services, after consultation with the Secretary and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, shall establish, through regulations, standards for the National Laboratory Accreditation program 11 So in original. Probably should be capitalized. that shall include—

(1)standards applicable to laboratories;

(2)qualifications for directors and other personnel; and

(3)standards and procedures for quality assurance programs.

(c)The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall approve State agencies or private, nonprofit entities as accrediting bodies to act on behalf of such Secretary in implementing the certification and quality assurance programs in accordance with the requirements of this section. In making such approvals the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall—

(1)oversee and review the performance of any accrediting body acting on behalf of the Secretary to ensure that such accrediting body is in compliance with the requirements of the certification program under this section; and

(2)have the right to obtain from an accrediting body acting on behalf of the Secretary and from any laboratory that may be certified by such a body all records and materials that may be necessary for the oversight and review required by paragraph (1).

(d)To be accredited under this chapter, a laboratory shall—

(1)prepare and submit an application for accreditation to the Secretary; and

(2)comply with such terms and conditions as are determined necessary by the Secretary and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

(e)This chapter shall not apply to—

(1)a laboratory operated by a government agency;

(2)a laboratory operated by a corporation that only performs analysis of residues on agricultural products for such corporation or any wholly owned subsidiary of such corporation and does not make claims to the public or buyers based on such analysis;

(3)a laboratory operated by a partnership that only performs analysis of residues on agricultural products for the partners of such partnership and does not make claims to the public or buyers based on such analysis; or

(4)a laboratory not operated for commercial purposes that performs pesticide chemical residue analysis on agricultural products for research or quality control for the internal use of a person who is initiating the analysis.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 138a

Title 7 — Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73