This International Standard provides requirements for the installation, maintenance, temperature calibration and temperature performance testing of standard thermal cyclers and real-time thermal cyclers and is applicable to the detection of food-borne pathogens as well as any other applications in food and feeding stuffs using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods. This standard has been established for food testing, but can also be applied in other domains using thermal cyclers (e.g. environmental, human health, animal health and forensic testing). There can be other requirements in specific documents.