Research and recommendations of analytical laboratories for specific needs at local, regional, national and international levels

Finding an analysis laboratory outside the company can seem easy most of the time. However, it is important to consider that the laboratories offering analytical services for the food industry are numerous but do not all offer the same services, the same type of support and, above all, are not necessarily certified for the same food industry parameters.

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The food factory laboratories or the industrial laboratories:

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• Often perform routine tests and rarely more

• Do not necessarily seek certification to provide results officially recognized by the regulatory authority

• Often use subcontractors when they:

  • Cannot perform certain analysis themselves

  • They want an official result for meeting a regulatory compliance requirement or meeting an officially recognized standard

• Works often with ready to use kits to perform their analysis faster

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When you want to obtain an analytical result for a specific parameter ; it is important to ask yourself what you are going to do with the result:

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• Use it as a data to adjust a machine or device in production

• Use it to prepare a certificate of analysis for a raw material or a finished product

• Use it to send an official result to representatives of the regulatory authority, to an audit firm or to a client

• Use it to validate the compliance of an operating parameter such as water hardness or the pH of a mixture

• Use it to meet an export certification requirement or standard

• Etc.

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Depending on what you want to do with the result , you will need to choose whether you do the analysis yourself or whether you will outsource it.

Choice of laboratory

In the event that you decide to contract out for analysis, you will have to choose a laboratory.

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How to do it:

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• A key question to clarify is whether do you need a certified laboratory?

• If so, in accordance with which norm/standard or with the standards of which countries or markets ?

• Don't forget to check the validity of the laboratory's operating certificate

• Do you need an official report to be sent to the relevant regulatory authority ?

• Will you realize the sampling?

• Do you need the sampling to be supervised by a representative of the relevant regulatory authority?

• You must check if the laboratory you have chosen has within its scope of audit the analysis method that suits your needs

• Make sure that the laboratory will include minimal elements of quality controls to validate that the results it provides to you are reliable and credible

• If it is a case that involves doing business with a laboratory in a foreign country; the same rules apply in addition to ensuring the official recognition of the laboratory in question at the international level.

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Sources of information at your disposal

In order to carry out the necessary verifications to validate the choice of a laboratory ; you will need to consult the data available on the websites of Canadian and foreign certification bodies if applicable.

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The CFIA and Health Canada provide some information in this regard and it is important to consult these sources first.

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Most industrialized and emerging countries have systems to assess and certify the competence of analytical laboratories and maintain online registers.

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We are able to help you research and recommend testing labs so you can choose the one that suits your needs. This will allow you to meet regulatory, normative and customer compliance requirements (including those stipulated in the GFSI standards) when you need to provide official test results. This will allow you to save time in addition to avoiding performing analyzes whose results would not be recognized here by the regulatory authority, by your customers or by the country to which you are exporting.  Laboratory analysis could be costly; this is why chosing the right laboratory for your analysis is important and could save you time and money.

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