What is cord blood bank accreditation?

Accreditations are quality standards. We describe each one on our Accreditation Standards page.

Cord blood laboratories that are located in certain countries are required by federal law to follow high standards: these include GMP in Germany, HTA in the UK, Swissmedic in Switzerland and TGA in Australia.

In the United States, public cord blood banks are required to get a Biologics License from the FDA, but family cord blood banks are only required to register with the FDA and undergo surprise inspections.

There are two voluntary accreditation systems that have been developed specifically for cord blood banking and are based on inspections of the laboratory procedures: AABB and FACT.  By comparison, ISO accreditation is not specific to cord blood banking.  Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Foundation recommends that parents choose a family bank that has AABB or FACT accreditation, if one is available in your country. In our 2015 Cord Blood Industry Report, we found that accredited cord blood banks are NOT more expensive on average that banks with no accreditation.