About us
Reference Laboratory for Milk and Dairy products
The Reference Laboratory for Milk and Dairy Products (RL) was established in 2001 as a result of joint project by the Department of Dairy Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb and the Ministry of Agriculture. The Project identified the sources of funding and the procurement of equipment needed for the operation of RL. The adoption of the "Regulation on the Quality of Fresh Raw Milk" (NN 102/2000) highlighted the need for the establishment and operation of RL, modeled on EU countries, and its role began in parallel with the establishment of the Central Laboratory for Milk Control of Croatian Agency for Agriculture (today HAPIH) located in Križevci, as a necessary part of a complete system.
From 2003-2007 RL was certified for the "Quality Management System" according to the international standard HRN EN ISO 9001. The whole system was evaluated by the independent certification company Det Norske Veritas (DNV).
Objectives and tasks of the RL, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation determining the composition of raw milk (NN 27/17), the Regulations authorizing official and reference laboratories for food and feed (NN 86/10, 7/11 and 74/13) are:
- performing milk and dairy products analyses by using reference methods, according to which SLKM and other dairy laboratories in the Republic of Croatia carry out calibrations of laboratory instruments, but also check the accuracy of their work modeled on laboratories in other European countries,
- delivery of reference material for cow's, goat's and sheep's milk for calibration of analytical instruments, to HAPIH and other laboratories, so that the quality control system of raw milk in the Republic of Croatia is completely independent and complete,
- continuous updating of the conversion relationship for the instrument (Bactoscan FC) which determines the total number of microorganisms in raw cow's, goat's and sheep's milk by flow cytometry, which is one of the most complete conversions in EU countries,
- organizing Proficiency tests by interlaboratory comparisons (PTs) for SLKM and other official laboratories, ensuring the traceability of measurement results to those of reference methods,
- introduction of new methods for analysis of milk and dairy products,
- organization of trainings for HAPIH and other interested dairy laboratories.
Also, in accordance with the Food Law (NN 46/07, 55/11) and the Regulations authorizing official and reference laboratories for food and feed (NN 86/10, 7/11 and 74 / 13), the Ministry of Agriculture has authorized the RL as the official and reference laboratory (see the Decision on Appointment at https://www.veterinarstvo.hr/default.aspx?id=1269).
The Reference Laboratory for Milk and Dairy Products is accredited by the Croatian Accreditation Agency in accordance with the requirements of the standard HRN EN ISO / IEC 17025 in the area described in the Accreditation certificate (Accreditation certificate number: 1081) while a description of the area of accreditation (list of accredited methods) is available on https://www.akreditacija.hr/registar.
Also, The Reference Laboratory for Milk and Dairy Products is accredited in accordance with the requirements of the standard HRN EN ISO / IEC 17043 "Conformity assessment - General requirements for proficiency testing".
With the accreditations, RL moved even closer to the goal of achieving high quality in all stages of the business system and meeting the requirements of users of our services.
A list of accredited methods with years of standards release is available in the menu under "List of accredited methods".