The Importance of Food Laboratory – Food safety is an important factor that must be considered. Food manufacturers must pay attention to the food safety of their products. This effort is to ensure the safety of customers & potential consumers. Food poisoning cases that occurred can be lessons for manufacturers to improve the wholesomeness of their products. This is because whenever there are food poisoning cases, normally there’d be temporary closure of outlets or products recall from the market.
The causes of food poisoning are varying. For example, food poisoning could happen due to pathogenic bacteria, heavy metal contamination, or other chemical contamination. It is important to carry out valid laboratory testing of food products periodically. This is to ensure the food safety process is completed. In PT Seafood Inspection Laboratory, we specialize in seafood products and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system, such as testing for the presence of salmonella, histamine, listeria, vibrio, E.Coli, coliform, clostridium botulinum, clostridium perfringens, etc.
The Importance of Food Laboratory in the Food Industry
In general, food laboratory plays an important role in identifying food problems. The food laboratory will help to provide valid testing result on laboratory testing parameters such as testing on Salmonella, Listeria, E.coli, Coliform, Clostridium botulinum etc. So, food laboratory is very important to check if the foods are wholesome or not. The following are the benefits of food laboratories for the food industry:
- Quality Control.
First, The food laboratory will help to identify contaminants in raw materials, contamination in finished goods & environment. - Product development.
With a food laboratory, product development process will be easier. The food laboratory will assist in shelf life studies, sensory inspection on products, etc. - Help to meet export & import standards
To food exporters, this food laboratory is very important in laboratory testing food products before export. Food laboratories can help to provide certificate of analysis as a required document that states that sample is free from harmful substances such as pathogenic microbes or heavy metals. - Detection of pathogenic contamination.
Food laboratories will support food manufacturers to identify the food safety testing parameters in raw materials, swab environment, ingredients and final products, thereby ensuring the wholesomeness. In order to prevent outbreaks of food poisoning, food laboratory tests microbiological, chemical & heavy metals parameters in food samples. - Testing allergens in food.
Food laboratory will assist food manufacturers in finding target allergens in ingredients, raw materials & finished products. Testing for allergens in food products usually for gluten in grains, peanuts, eggs, nuts, milk and soy. - Sensory Test.
Sensory testing is the testing of food samples using human senses such as sight, touch & smell. They inspect the samples’ appearance, color, texture & smell.
Choose Certified Food Laboratory
In conclusion, The food laboratory plays an important role in increasing the sales of food manufacturers. The food laboratory will conduct tests based on existing regulations or standards, both national and international standards. So, Food companies will use KAN ISO certified laboratory for reliable test results. Therefore, it is important for food companies to choose an accredited food laboratory. Food testing laboratories must be accredited to standards such as the ISO 17025 standard. ISO 17025 is a general requirement for the competence of food testing laboratory. A certified laboratory will implement a good working system to improve and maintain its testing validity. For more details, you can find out how to choose a food laboratory for your food products here.
A certified food testing laboratory has a complex working system. Of course, its standard operating procedure must be implemented in a consistent manner. Mostly, it’s difficult to run a laboratory in production site as it may demand many resources to support it. For valid laboratory testing results, you could contact a certified food testing laboratory. That certified laboratory can help you to produce a Certificate of Analysis. PT Seafood Inspection Laboratory could help you to test & issue COA for your food samples. The COA can be used in food auditing process & for applying health certificate in export administration.
Finally, we’ve known the importance of the food laboratory for the food industry. If you run a food manufacturing/ exporting business, you may want to consider food laboratory testing to support your business. Pls contact us how we could support you.