Purpose:
For legal defensibility and in order to maintain chain of custody of samples, the COC needs to be relinquished when transferring custody to another party (courier, lab, etc.) by signing and indicating the date and time of relinquishment.
Process:
Bureau Veritas Laboratories signs for custody of samples upon receipt and can proceed with analysis of samples that were not relinquished. A notification is provided of the break in custody of the samples.
Helpful Tips:
- Leave the guess work behind - use the date and time of when you are sealing up the cooler for transport
- Include both the date AND the time when relinquishing custody
- For multi-page COC submissions, remember to relinquish all COC pages
- If this is commonly missed, review field practices to see at which part in your process the COC should be relinquished
All COCs must be signed, dated and time in 24-hour clock by the consultant before sample shipment and by the lab upon sample receipt. Every transfer of Chain of Custody must be signed and dated. Note that 24-hour clock must be used for relinquished time.
Deficiency is applied for a submission if any of the signature, date or time is missing or inaccurate from the COC.