What is ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory accreditation?
It is formal recognition, by an accreditation body, of a laboratory’s competence and impartiality to perform specific tests, analyses or calibrations. Morocco’s Ministry of Industry and Trade uses this definition for every conformity assessment body. The laboratory standard is ISO/IEC 17025, which sets general requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of testing and calibration laboratories, according to the ISO Help Centre.
Two words matter: specific and competence. Accreditation does not cover “the laboratory” in general. It covers a list of tests or calibrations, with their methods, matrices or quantities and measuring ranges: the scope of accreditation. The in-house laboratory of a fish cannery in Agadir may be accredited for a handful of microbiological and chemical parameters and remain unaccredited for the rest of its work.
The laboratories concerned are varied: construction materials testing, food and veterinary analysis, chemistry, textiles and leather, calibration laboratories and sampling bodies. Medical laboratories follow a different standard, ISO 15189, which SEMAC accredits separately.
For a buyer in Europe or the Gulf, the practical question is simple: when a supplier sends a test report, is it issued under accreditation, for that test, by a laboratory whose scope you can check? Every accredited laboratory in Morocco has a public scope. Ask for it.
Which edition of ISO/IEC 17025 applies?
The latest international edition is ISO/IEC 17025:2017, announced by ISO on 1 December 2017; the ISO Help Centre still describes it as the latest edition on its page dated 31 July 2025. In Morocco, SEMAC accredits against the Moroccan adoption, NM ISO/IEC 17025:2018, which is the reference of its list of accredited laboratories revised in June 2026.
No new edition has been announced: the standard’s page on the ISO website shows it as confirmed on 18 August 2023, after its systematic review, and states that this edition “remains current”. ISO standards are reviewed every five years, so the next review is not expected before 2028.
According to ISO, the 2017 edition extended the scope to sampling associated with testing and calibration, adopted the process approach used by ISO 9001, ISO 15189 and ISO/IEC 17021-1, strengthened requirements on information technology and electronic records, and added risk-based thinking.
Standard | What it assesses | Who grants it in Morocco | What the customer receives |
|---|---|---|---|
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 (NM ISO/IEC 17025:2018) | Technical competence of a testing or calibration laboratory, for a scope | SEMAC (accreditation) | Test reports or calibration certificates issued under accreditation |
ISO 15189 | Quality and competence of a medical laboratory | SEMAC (accreditation) | Medical laboratory reports under accreditation |
ISO/IEC 17020:2026 | Competence and impartiality of an inspection body | SEMAC (accreditation) | Inspection reports under accreditation |
ISO 9001:2026 | Quality management system of any organisation | Accredited certification body | System certificate, with no recognition of technical competence |
A laboratory can hold ISO 9001 certification and ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation at the same time; one does not replace the other. For a laboratory inside a certified plant, we build a single document system rather than two: see ISO 9001 certification.
Who accredits laboratories in Morocco?
SEMAC, the Moroccan Accreditation Service. The ministry’s accreditation page describes it as Morocco’s only accreditation body, operating as the accreditation division of the directorate for consumer protection, market surveillance and quality. It is a government body, and accreditation is a not-for-profit activity.
The legal basis is Law 12-06 on standardisation, certification and accreditation (promulgated on 11 February 2010), which created the Moroccan Accreditation Committee (COMAC), and Decree 2-10-252 of 20 April 2011. SEMAC operates to ISO/IEC 17011; its accreditation procedure A 110 was aligned with NM ISO/IEC 17011:2018 in January 2023. Decisions are taken by the head of SEMAC on the opinion of an accreditation committee.
Besides testing and calibration laboratories, SEMAC accredits medical laboratories (NM ISO 15189), inspection bodies (NM ISO/IEC 17020) and certification bodies. It publishes lists of accredited bodies and their scopes by sector: construction, chemistry and food, textiles and leather, multi-sector and calibration.
Is SEMAC accreditation recognised outside Morocco?
It depends on international recognition arrangements. SEMAC document A 410 (version 03, February 2023) states that SEMAC is an associate member of ILAC, IAF and ARAC, the Arab Accreditation Cooperation. Document A 218.02 says the combined ILAC MRA-SEMAC mark will only apply once SEMAC has signed the ILAC arrangement.
Since 1 January 2026, Global ACI has taken over the roles of ILAC and IAF, according to its FAQ. Its associate members page lists the “Moroccan Accreditation Service” for Morocco, among accreditation bodies that have not yet been accepted as signatories of its mutual recognition arrangement (MRA). As of 6 November 2026, a SEMAC-accredited report therefore does not benefit from that multilateral recognition: no automatic recognition abroad can be promised.
In practice, a buyer and a supplier should settle this in writing before the project starts: which accreditation will the buyer accept for which tests? Laboratories in other African or Middle Eastern countries follow the same logic with their own national or regional accreditation body.
How does SEMAC accreditation work, step by step?
In seven stages, set out in SEMAC procedures A 110 (accreditation) and A 120 (assessment). The deadlines below are those fixed by these documents; they say nothing about how long your own preparation will take.
Stage | What happens | Deadline set by SEMAC |
|---|---|---|
1. Contact and submission | SEMAC appoints an accreditation officer; the laboratory sends the file listed in document AL 411 to dac@mcinet.gov.ma and to SEMAC’s online accreditation platform | File complete within one month of SEMAC’s first feedback, otherwise inadmissible |
2. Admissibility | Review of completeness, requested scope and SEMAC’s capacity to assess the field | Decision within 5 working days of a complete file |
3. Pre-assessment (optional) | Voluntary visit of one day at most, at the laboratory’s request; informative remarks, not graded | Report to SEMAC within 10 days |
4. Document review | Review of documents before the initial assessment | Report within 5 working days of receiving the documents |
5. On-site assessment | Assessment of the management system and of the technical activities in the scope by a lead assessor and technical assessors | Findings notified and signed at the closing meeting |
6. Closing findings | Root cause analysis and action plan, then evidence of implementation | 2 weeks for the action plan, then up to 2 more months for evidence |
7. Decision | Report review, accreditation committee opinion, decision by the head of SEMAC, certificate and signed scope | Depends on the committee schedule |
SEMAC grades findings in two levels. A nonconformity is critical: it calls into question the reliability of results or the effectiveness of the system. A remark is non-critical, but several remarks on the same subject may be treated as a nonconformity. At initial assessment, both must be closed before accreditation is granted.
One rule from procedure A 120 is worth noting: the assessment team must not give consultancy during the pre-assessment. The consultant prepares, the assessor assesses. ACG never does both.
What goes into the application file?
SEMAC document AL 411 (version 00, 10 December 2024) lists 22 items for an initial application. Our checklist groups them:
A laboratory may not refer to accreditation or use the mark before it is accredited, or outside its scope.
How should you define your scope of accreditation?
Start from what customers actually ask for and from what you can demonstrate today. Each line of the scope states the item or matrix, the property measured, the reference method and, for calibration, the range and measurement capability. SEMAC provides draft scope templates by type of laboratory, and lists ILAC G18 (formulation of scopes for laboratories) among its applicable documents.
Three mistakes come up again and again:
- Asking for too much at once. Each scope line needs a verified or validated method, traceability, an uncertainty estimate and quality control. A short, solid first scope followed by extensions, which SEMAC processes at a lower fee, beats a broad scope that fails.
- Copying a standard’s title without verifying it in-house. A standard method must be verified in your conditions, with your equipment and your staff.
- Forgetting in-house methods. A modified or developed method needs a full validation file, which SEMAC asks for in the application.
What does SEMAC require for metrological traceability?
Every critical measuring instrument must be traceable to the International System of Units through an accepted route, and the laboratory must justify which instruments it treats as critical. SEMAC’s traceability policy A 008.02, based on ILAC P10, sets out four routes.
Route | Calibration performed by | Evidence expected |
|---|---|---|
1 | A national metrology institute that is a CIPM MRA signatory | Calibration certificate or verification report |
2 | A calibration laboratory accredited by an ILAC calibration arrangement signatory | Certificate bearing the accreditation body’s logo |
3 | A calibration laboratory accredited by SEMAC | Certificate bearing the SEMAC accreditation mark |
4a | A national metrology institute whose capabilities are not covered by the CIPM MRA | Justification of the route and evidence of competence, assessed by SEMAC |
4b | A laboratory not accredited for that calibration, or in-house calibration | Justification of the route and evidence of competence, assessed by SEMAC |
For a calibration laboratory’s reference standards, routes 1, 2 and 3 are the rule; routes 4a and 4b are a last resort, with documented technical justification, when the others are impossible in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Cost, or the need to send an instrument abroad, is not an accepted reason. Calibration certificates without an accreditation logo are not accepted as evidence of traceability, and they must state the associated uncertainty.
The classic finding is simple: a balance, an oven or a reference thermometer used for a test in the scope is missing from the traceability table. We always start with the list of critical equipment, justified item by item.
How should measurement uncertainty be handled?
Evaluate it for every test or calibration in the scope, with a written method, and use it when you state that a result conforms or not. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 requires laboratories to identify and evaluate the contributions to uncertainty. Calibration laboratories evaluate it for all calibrations. Testing laboratories evaluate it as well; where the method does not allow rigorous evaluation, they make an estimate based on theoretical principles or practical experience of the method.
SEMAC asks for a technical procedure for uncertainty calculation in the application file, and lists ILAC P14 (uncertainty in calibration), ILAC G17 (uncertainty in testing) and ILAC G8 (decision rules and statements of conformity) among its applicable documents.
What makes the difference at assessment:
- one uncertainty budget per method, built on the real sources: calibration, repeatability, within-laboratory reproducibility, reference materials, environmental conditions;
- data from your own quality control, updated when the method, the equipment or the team changes;
- a written decision rule, agreed with the customer when a statement of conformity to a specification is requested;
- consistency between declared uncertainty, proficiency testing results and control charts.
What are the proficiency testing requirements?
The laboratory must show, continuously, that its results remain valid: internal quality control, reference materials and comparison with other laboratories. For SEMAC, item A 312 of the file presents the proficiency testing and interlaboratory comparison results already obtained and the plan for the technical fields of the scope over the five-year cycle, with the latest reports attached. ILAC P9 (participation in proficiency testing activities) is on SEMAC’s list of applicable documents.
SEMAC sets its own rules in its policy A 006.01 on laboratory participation in interlaboratory comparisons (in French):
- before applying: at least one interlaboratory comparison in one of the main technical fields of the requested scope, a precondition for the application to be admissible;
- during the cycle: at least one comparison in each main accredited technical field, under a participation plan whose frequency follows a needs analysis, reviewed when a method, equipment or staff change;
- after an unsatisfactory result: analysis of causes and of the consequences for results already issued, then appropriate measures, up to stopping work or recalling the reports concerned where needed;
- where no scheme exists: written justification for not participating, and proof of competence by other means, such as regular use of reference materials or repeating tests with equivalent methods.
Assessors review at every assessment whether the plan is relevant, how providers were chosen (preferably accredited to ISO/IEC 17043) and how results were used.
Our approach: cover each technical field of the scope over the cycle, choose competent providers, analyse every result (score, root cause when unsatisfactory, actions) and link it back to your uncertainty estimates. An unsatisfactory result handled honestly can be defended; one that is ignored cannot.
How do you demonstrate impartiality and confidentiality?
With a written analysis of risks to impartiality, staff commitments and measures that address each risk. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 puts impartiality and confidentiality first among its requirements, and SEMAC asks for the impartiality risk analysis in the application.
The typical case is a laboratory inside a company: the quality control laboratory of a food plant that also tests for third parties, or a group laboratory that calibrates for its subsidiaries. The analysis shows who could influence a result, how the laboratory protects itself (organisation, signatories, release of reports) and how it checks that protection works.
What does accreditation cost, and how long does it last?
SEMAC’s own fees have been public since 1 January 2026, under joint order 2435.14 of 7 July 2014. The ministry’s notice to conformity assessment bodies lists the services charged and when each is paid; check the current amounts in that notice:
SEMAC service | Payment |
|---|---|
Processing an initial application | After processing, before notification of admissibility |
Processing a renewal application | Same |
Processing an extension (new fields) | Same |
Annual fee (pro rata in the year of initial accreditation) | By 28 February each year; before the accreditation certificate is issued for accreditation granted during the year |
Assessment days come on top. The ministry publishes SEMAC’s assessment fee schedule (document A 004.04, in French): fees depend on the length of the assessment, the number of assessors and experts and their country of residence, with a daily rate plus accommodation and travel costs. Check the current amounts in that schedule, or ask SEMAC, before setting your budget.
The real cost of a project lies elsewhere: calibration, reference materials, proficiency testing, staff time and, where used, consultancy. We give no price or timeline before we have seen the laboratory and the target scope.
Accreditation is granted for a five-year cycle, with three surveillance assessments and a renewal assessment at the holder’s request, according to the ministry’s accreditation page. Procedure A 110.03 sets the first surveillance no later than 12 months after the decision, then 15 months between assessments. The laboratory then appears on the public list with its accreditation number and date, status (active or suspended), expiry date and scope reference.
How do you keep accreditation through the five-year cycle?
By running the system between assessments. SEMAC carries out three surveillance assessments per cycle: the first no later than 12 months after the decision, then every 15 months, with no more than 24 months between two assessments. Renewal takes place at least six months before expiry. Each assessment covers the management system and the technical activities in the scope.
Surveillance looks first at previous corrective actions, the management review, internal audit, complaints, new staff competence, proficiency testing, traceability and use of the mark. Nonconformities raised at surveillance must be closed within six weeks, otherwise the committee may propose suspension.
Five routines keep a laboratory on track:
- an annual review of uncertainty estimates and of the critical equipment list;
- a proficiency testing plan that is followed and analysed;
- internal audits that follow one test from sample receipt to signed report;
- a management review that decides on resources, extensions and risks;
- monitoring of changes to the standard methods in the scope.
ACG can run all or part of these routines: outsourced internal audits (see audits and inspections), preparation of surveillance and extensions, training for new technicians.
Laboratory, inspection body or management system: which standard for which activity?
It depends on what you deliver. A measurement or test result falls under ISO/IEC 17025. A judgement of conformity on a product, installation or process after examination falls under ISO/IEC 17020:2026, published on 27 March 2026: see ISO/IEC 17020:2026 for inspection bodies. A body that does both, such as a technical centre that inspects installations and performs the related tests, can seek both accreditations with a shared document system.
All our ISO services are presented on QHSE and ISO systems. Related training (ISO/IEC 17025 requirements, measurement uncertainty, laboratory internal audit) sits in our ISO standards training domain.