SGS Brookings announces reaccreditation by the USDA National Seed Health System

Date:04-29-2013

SGS Brookings is pleased to announce its recent three-year reaccreditation by the USDA National Seed Health System (NSHS). This achievement vastly expands the offering of seed pathogen testing offered by SGS Brookings in order to substantiate the issuance of Federal Phytosanitary Certificates, which facilitate international movement of seed.

The NSHS is a program authorized by USDA-APHIS that accredits both private and public entities. In addition to seed health testing, SGS Brookings is accredited for seed sampling and visual inspection of seed prior to issuance of phytosanitary certificates.

SGS microbiologist Sonja VanHolland is looking forward to the much larger variety of testing SGS Brookings can now offer. “This larger scope of accreditation will help us serve our clients even better, particularly those in the vegetable seed industry,” she said. “We are especially excited to offer testing for Verticillium on spinach and the latest method for performing bacterial fruit blotch analysis. This is a great compliment to the other International Seed Testing Association’s (ISTA) seed health methods and food safety tests we already offer.”

The new scope of seed health testing accreditation for SGS Brookings includes analysis on a wider variety of seed such as lettuce and other leafy crops, cucurbits, solanaceae species, maize, soybeans, brassica, beans and peas.

SGS Brookings offers a broad range of agricultural analyses on seed, grain, soil, feed, crops, and food for pesticide and antibiotic residue, mycotoxins, quality, food safety, contaminants, physical conditions, and more. SGS Brookings is ISO 9001, ISO 17025 and ISTA accredited.