The Food Science and Technology Research Center of Universidad de Santiago was accredited as a laboratory for 4 years by the National Institute for Standardization, an agency that is in charge of certifying infrastructure, equipment and qualified staff, in this case, to perform scientific tests in the areas of chemistry and microbiology. President Juan Manuel Zolezzi congratulated the Center’s managers, academics and students for this achievement, stressing that “the commitment of our University to science, technology and innovation is faithfully reflected in this laboratory, so we will continue making it stronger.”
On Wednesday 8th, the President of Universidad de Santiago, Juan Manuel Zolezzi arrived in the facilities of the Food Science and Technology Research Center (CECTA, its acronym in Spanish) to congratulate its managing team, academics and students for the accreditation of CECTA by the National Institute for Standardization (INN, its acronym in Spanish).The INN is an autonomous foundation created by the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo) that is in charge of promoting the creation and use of Chilean standards and accrediting conformity assessment institutions like CECTA of Universidad de Santiago, which was certified for the maximum period of 4 years.After a process started in 2009, with more emphasis as of 2011, the INN finally informed in December, 2013, that the CECTA has the infrastructure, equipment and qualified staff to run scientific tests as a test laboratory in the areas of chemistry and microbiology.During his visit, President Zolezzi said that he was aware of “the great job done by everyone who is part of CECTA in an accreditation process that is not easy.”“I know the efforts that CECTA has made to get accredited. These are not simple processes, but the excellent results obtained are worthy. Also, this certification significantly backs not only the Center but the University, that has contributed to this achievement with funds and will continue doing it,” President Zolezzi said.“The commitment of our University to science, technology and innovation is faithfully reflected in this laboratory; this is why we are interested in continuing to make this type of organization stronger and we expect this to attract researchers from the University and other institutions,” he said.For his part, Claudio Martínez, director of CECTA, described CECTA’s accreditation by the INN as “a milestone in the history of our Center.”“This decision recognizes our very professional way of working and it open doors for us to undertake more complex projects, together with companies, exporting ones mainly, which we were not able to access before. It is a great opportunity and it is our challenge to make the most of it,” Martínez said.“For example now, we can have access to other types of certification, through SAG (Agricultural and Livestock Service) or Sernapesca (Fishing National Service), which are agencies that require previous accreditations,” he added.“This means that the accreditation was the first big step; now, our mission is to keep CECTA moving forward in the same way it has advanced up to now: meeting standards and regulations to the greatest possible degree,” concluded Claudio Martínez, director of this accredited Center.Translated by Marcela Contreras