State lab warns bill on baby-food metal testing would require ISO‑accredited chemistry labs the public lab lacks
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Summary
Vermont’s public health lab director told a legislative committee that the lab lacks ISO/IEC 17025 chemistry accreditation required under the bill and warned that instrument detection limits, accreditation costs and method standardization could complicate implementation for manufacturers and regulators.
Cheryl Achilles, director of the Vermont Ag and Environmental Laboratory in Randolph Center, told the committee that proposed requirements for baby‑food metal testing and public posting of results would likely fall to ISO/IEC 17025‑accredited chemistry laboratories — a certification the state lab does not currently hold for food chemistries.
Achilles said ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation typically takes two to four years to obtain and is costly to maintain; she cited roughly $5,500 per year for certification maintenance under her prior experience. She warned that instruments have limits of detection and day‑to‑day variability, so reporting limits should be set above the instrument’s lowest reliable detection to produce consistent, trustworthy results.
The witness noted federal Food and Drug Administration guidance currently defines lead limits (for some commodities) at about 10–20 parts per billion, while members flagged that the bill references a 6 micrograms per kilogram (approximately 6 parts per billion) threshold — lower than some federal benchmarks. Achilles said federal methods for the other metals named in the bill remain in development and that the bill’s proposed limits could be below what routine instruments can reliably detect.
Committee members pressed on where manufacturers would send samples for testing; Achilles said manufacturers commonly send samples to regional commercial, accredited laboratories and that public health labs generally provide surveillance and regulatory data rather than commercial testing services. She added that FDA regional labs can serve as referee labs for confirmatory analyses.
Achilles also raised supply‑chain concerns: she cited a prior applesauce recall traced to contaminated cinnamon sourced from lower‑cost suppliers and warned that low‑cost raw materials or certain sourcing regions can drive higher contaminant levels. On related contaminants, the lab has EPA Method 533 for PFAS in drinking water and is developing soil PFAS methods but does not yet perform microplastic testing.
The committee thanked Achilles and discussed next steps; members indicated they expect further testimony and possible markup in the coming week.
