It is not easy to choose an analytical testing laboratory or test methodologies to confirm or identify the condition of a food or beverage product. It’s not easy to choose an analytical testing laboratory or test methodologies to confirm or identify the condition of a food or beverage product. You should Verify Business for high profits. It is necessary to make decisions about the types of testing that are appropriate or necessary, whether to conduct the testing in-house or outsource it, and how to ensure one’s confidence in the competence of those performing the activity, and thus in knowing that the results are credible and accurate.
- The turnaround time, especially in the food industry, where many goods are perishable. As a result, this should be a primary consideration when selecting a laboratory. As it is the least empirical, judging the quality and reliability of test results is perhaps the most difficult.
- Location, analytical turnaround time, cost of the specific test, and results dependability are all factors to consider. Although the cost of a test should be considered when making a decision, it should never take precedence over other considerations
- The logistics of location and distance from the manufacturing facility are important considerations when choosing a testing laboratory. While it may still be appropriate for confirmatory testing, if the testing facility is not close enough or does not offer courier service, the laboratory’s transportation efficiency is likely to make it unsuitable for routine testing, regardless of the other considerations involved.
- Use testing results from proficiency testing or blind samples as proof. This gives the production facility live data on the laboratory’s capacity to produce generally acceptable results. On the downside, proficiency testing programs may not include fully applicable matrices or analytes that are representative of the producer’s product. Furthermore, the time and effort required to set up blind check samples could be costly and time consuming, and the results could lack statistical validity.
Final thoughts
Regardless of the legal repercussions of selling a “inherently unsafe product,” ensuring that the products they manufacture are safe for human consumption is a top priority for all food and beverage manufacturing businesses. Plant management achieves this by ensuring that raw materials entering or leaving the plant are not polluted or otherwise adulterated, and that their manufacturing procedures do not inadvertently make a product dangerous.
Because of human nature, one’s willingness to accept the risk of an adverse outcome (for example, inaccurate test results at a food plant) is inversely proportional to the rigor with which the risk is managed, and it is generally directly proportional to the potential adverse economic consequences of failing to manage the risk appropriately. If all other factors are equal, the decision between in-house and outsourced product safety testing should be based on the task’s complexity, confidence in the analysis’ competence, the relative risk of contamination or adulteration of the food product itself, and, as previously mentioned, the willingness to accept the risk of an inaccurate test result.
