Role of Analytical Testing in Maintaining Food Safety

“Food testing is all about Quality and Integrity of data”

The development and application of analytical methods and techniques in food testing has grown parallel to the consumers concern about what is in their food and the safety of the food they eat. To give an adequate answer to the raising consumers’ demands, food analysts around the world are facing increasingly complex challenges that require using the best available analytical technology. 

 

To ensure food safety we need to have an effective food control programme, operational framework, mechanism to control food contamintation, effective and reliable food testing laboratories, effective inhouse quality control in laboratories, Quality in data generated and data management and data integrity.

 

Building an arsenal of reliable and validated methods to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges rests on three essential elements: consensus, continuous evolution and new processes. The quality of food testing laboratories can be improved through qualified, trained and motived personnels, representative sampling, handling of samples by ensuring integrity and chain of custody, using calibrated equipments, validated test methods, effective inhouse quality control mechanism, data integrity and accreditation. The requirement on Laboratory Information based Management System (LIMS), capacity building on identified areas and ensuring data integrity is the greatest challenge in food testing laboratories and a regulatory framework is the need of the hour to enforce this.