7 precautions for assigning unique identifiers to reference materials in the laboratory

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1 The standard material serial number, production batch number, or production date should not be used as the management number for laboratory standard materials. This is because for laboratories, the standard material identifier, production batch number, or production date do not provide uniqueness; for example, standard materials with the same identifier may have different production batch numbers ； There are also different reference materials within the same batch number. 2 To prevent management numbers from becoming too complex, when purchasing multiple standard materials with the same number and batch code, since they are kept under identical storage conditions, they can be regarded as the same standard material and assigned the same management number. 3 When standard materials with the same identifier and batch number are purchased at different times, their storage conditions may vary; therefore, they should be regarded as distinct standard materials and assigned different management numbers. 4. The management number of the standard material or standard solution must be indicated on the corresponding certificate or preparation record as well, to ensure a one-to-one correspondence and to facilitate tracing when needed in the future. 5. When attaching labels, the valid areas of the standard material label (applied by the manufacturer) or the reagent label should not be covered, so that inspectors can easily view and verify the relevant information. After a 6 standard substance expires and is no longer in use, the standard storage solutions or application solutions prepared using that standard substance must also be discontinued simultaneously. 7 When there is doubt regarding the accuracy of the value of a certain reference material or standard solution, it is recommended to directly change its status from “qualified” to “out of service”, without the need to conduct any further verification tests. This is because the quantity of reference materials stored in laboratories is generally limited; the cost of conducting verification tests often approaches or exceeds the cost of purchasing or preparing a new batch of reference materials or standard solutions. Moreover, the reliability of the results obtained through such internal verifications is not high. 8. In the original test records, the traceability information of the reference materials must indicate their management numbers, so as to facilitate tracing when needed in the future. 9 The labeling of reference materials and standard solutions should be distinct from the labels of those reference materials and standard solutions. The former requires timely changes to relevant content (label conversion) as circumstances change, whereas the latter can remain fixed.