Can anyone recommend a contract laboratory in the UK to perform water testing?
Hi,
The company I work for makes a dry food ingredients (E551 and E552) and within our HACCP plan we identify that Pathogen growth as a hazard is low risk because of the very low water activity of the products. The data we have is rather old and I would like to generate some new data to support this statement.
I have sent out a few requests with no joy, so can anyone recommend a contract laboratory in the UK to perform this testing?
We are considering purchase of the equipment in 2021, if anyone has any advise this would be welcome too.
Thanks in advance for your help
Regards
John
Hi John.
Where abouts in the UK are you?
We use Northern Hygiene Laboratories, for several different tests, and I've found them very good. UKAS accredited. They collect boxes of samples from me very last minute, and are always very accommodating.
Sorry my title was not clear, to clarify I am looking for facilities performing Water Activity (aw) testing
Where have you tried so far?
Not something I've got much need for, but for general food chemistry I've been very impressed with Concept Life Sciences recently.
Campden also always an option if you don't mind paying accordingly ;)
Thanks
Butterworth Labs, ALS and SGS I have drawn a blank so far.
Particularly surprised by the latter two, but I was speaking to a customer a few weeks ago who seemed to be having some issues finding a lab to do this analysis on a reasonable turnaround.
I've certainly found that a number of the labs have really cut numbers back due to social distancing requirements, and this is having an impact on testing speed and availability. One offered me micro on a 5-day service, but only if we waited six weeks before sending samples to them!
Edited to add: I've found RSSL pretty good over the last few years too, although tend to only use them for more peculiar things where there isn't a standard method available from most of the contract labs. Nonetheless it could be worth giving them a call if you're struggling for options.
Thanks for the comments
Yes I think lockdown initially and now ongoing challenges to maintain social distancing are in play at the moment.
The lab we go to use Eurofins and are moving to One Scientific