Tag Archives: LIMS

Why Should Food Manufacturers Consider Lab Automation?

By Dr. Christine Paszko
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Food manufacturers that think strategically understand that labor efficiency is a measure of how effectively a workforce completes a task in comparison to industry. Companies frequently access efficiency and other metrics to identify weak points in their operations, with the end goal of enhancing data quality and streamlining costs. This approach has led many food and beverage manufacturers to embrace lean manufacturing and six sigma programs in their organizations. These leaders have a clear understanding that labor is money (or money is stored labor), and money equals margins. Food and beverage manufacturers often acquire several raw materials and convert them into finished products for consumers to purchase. These manufacturers have found that robotics and automation have greatly increased productivity and enhanced product quality while maximizing resources and profitability.

LIMS offer a variety of benefits. Image courtesy of ATL
LIMS offer a variety of benefits. Image courtesy of ATL

Ease Operations with Automation

Analytical testing laboratories within food manufacturing firms leverage LIMS to realize automation savings. LIMS is an acronym for Laboratory Information Management System, which can also be a manual paper/Excel based solution, however, this article will focus on completely automated, computerized, enterprise, software solutions. Manual systems are cumbersome, costly, and lack efficiency.

Just as automation and robotics have transformed the food manufacturing process, intelligent laboratory operations leverage LIMS, because it enables increased quality and faster turnaround, while providing significant cost savings. LIMS are computerized systems that organize, manage and communicate all of the laboratory test data and related information such as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Certificates of Analysis (COAs), final analysis reports, invoices, nutritional labels, formulations and information to support an organization’s operations and meet regulatory compliance goals.

Traditional LIMS facilitate overall laboratory organization, from sample management to test data to final reporting and disposal. LIMS begin with sample management and typically the generation of barcoded labels (of a unique identification number), testing is automatically assigned based on project or sample type (Note: Additional tests can be added or deleted, and ad hoc samples can also be logged). Some laboratories test all raw materials that arrive to confirm acceptance criteria against the COA, in addition to in-process, final product testing and environmental testing. Once samples are logged into the system, worklists are created in the LIMS of the samples to be run and the information is scanned via barcode and sent to the instrument controller. Tests that include associated quality control data are run by loading instruments. Results are electronically imported back into the LIMS from instrumentation (this is the most common and most efficient method). For manual, subjective tests that require interpretation, results must be entered into the LIMS by hand. Managers can also manage and track samples that have been subcontracted to other laboratories (i.e., for testing capabilities that do not exist internally). Once the subcontracted data is submitted back to the laboratory in an electronic format, it can be directly imported into the LIMS, and all data related to the sample is stored in a single, secure database.

Automation significantly reduces cost, enhances quality and provides a means to rapidly scale production. This image shows a cheese processing plant. Image courtesy of ATL
Automation significantly reduces cost, enhances quality and provides a means to rapidly scale production. This image shows a cheese processing plant. Image courtesy of ATL

This approach offers a major advantage, especially to global operations, due to the ability to deliver real-time data across an enterprise. End-users can leverage the technology to make intelligent buying decisions based on product specifications of incoming raw materials, customer demand, specification criteria and blending simulations.

Managers can view a variety of metrics, including the number of samples that have been run for a particular product, statistical process control charts, instruments in service for workload management, and supplier performance in any given period. Complete product traceability is possible.

LIMS has evolved to manage many additional functions, such as communications with ERP/SAP systems, shelf life studies, performing skip lot testing, formulations, and field and plant data collection by integration with tablets and smartphones for real-time updates, managing competitive analysis data as well as special projects. A few of the major areas in which LIMS are leveraged include:

  1. Sample management of all testing initiated
  2. Quality assurance (including in process quality checks)
  3. Workflow management (optimization of processes)
  4. Regulatory compliance (FSMA, GFSI, HACCP, FDA)
  5. Specification management, formulations and blending
  6. Dashboards for real-time updates (in a single site or across operations)
  7. Customer relationship management (organizing and responding to customer inquiries)
  8. Reporting (COA, final analysis and invoice reports)
  9. Inventory management and product release

Enabling Standardization

A LIMS not only enhances communication across a laboratory, but also across a global organization with multiple sites, ensuring effective cooperation and relationships between suppliers, production and customers. A LIMS promotes standardization in global firms and gives management teams real-time data access from site to site, so that data is readily available for better management and resource allocation decisions. Standardization makes business and financial sense, as organizations can realize cost savings in buying testing equipment and supplies in larger quantities, exchanging staff to different sites (potentially reducing training costs), and managing a user-friendly, single secure database that supports localization (each site can implement LIMS in its native language). Standardization does not mean that systems must be ridged; each facility can leverage its own unique workflows and terminology while saving data to a standard database format.

A LIMS can manage an entire organization’s laboratory SOPs or work instructions, and documents associated with the following:
  • Laboratory testing
  • Assets
  • Inventory
  • Laboratory chemicals
  • Supplies
  • Formulations
  • Blending
  • Automated calculations
  • Customer interactions
  • Employee training records
  • Laboratory instrumentation
  • Purchase orders
  • Sample storage
  • Reporting
  • Invoicing
  • Facilitating governmental laboratory compliance requirements

Today, LIMS’ have expanded to manage all aspects of laboratory operations and have significant overlap with ERP, SAP systems and other enterprise solutions. The goal is to move away from multiple separate databases and distinct islands to one centralized data management solution. Amazingly, some laboratories do not make the investment in new LIMS technology and continue use in-house created database systems, manual paper systems and Excel spreadsheets (or a combination of these systems) to manage portions of the critical product testing data. These systems are often costly, labor intensive, subject to data loss, and difficult to manage and maintain.

A LIMS ensures that analytical resources have been best utilized to maximize productivity and efficiency to generate high-quality data to support operations, while facilitating regulatory compliance goals. Organizations that embrace quality often leverage technology such as LIMS, and typically hold ISO 17025 certification and embrace six sigma, lean manufacturing and other best practices.

Robotics has transformed food manufacturing to allow greater volumes of final product to be produced, with an emphasis on speed, standardization, consistent product quality and volume, with increased efficiency and cost savings. LIMS’ have transformed the manufacturing process and the laboratory analysis process from raw material testing to in-process /environmental testing and finished product testing. For example, on-line monitors can feed data into an LIMS (i.e. flow, temperature from freezers or incubators), and if there are any alarming data points, instant notification is provided to the team via email or a phone call. This rapid response saves time for a corrective action to be put into place. Within the laboratory, if a shelf life study is underway and the incubator fails, an alert can be sent after one out-of-range temperature measurement, allowing the problem to be corrected and the study saved, versus having to start over.

The analytical testing group in any food and beverage testing facility generates hundreds, thousands, even millions of data points a year. They gather data on raw materials (based on COAs), in-process manufacturing (quality checks, statistical process control and specification confirmation), environmental monitoring, and finished product testing as well as performing competitive analysis. These are some of the main areas that are impacted by sample collection and testing. LIMS and laboratory automation have transformed the way that data is collected, monitored and analyzed. Today’s LIMS’ are based on modern technology, providing a valuable tool to ensure that product is within specification, and collected and disseminated in real-time to improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase profitability.

Why LIMS Is a Necessity, Not a Nicety

By Dr. Christine Paszko
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How a laboratory information management system can facilitate safety testing and regulatory compliance within a food processor’s lab.

The food industry is under pressure to produce high-quality products while adhering to stringent microbiological testing standards controlling costs and meeting regulatory compliance goals. Food companies face a number of regulations and requirements, including those related to Good Manufacturing Practices, nutritional labeling, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), public health security, the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, and FSMA. For laboratories that offer products globally, the Global Food Safety Initiative focuses on continuous improvement of food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers. Many companies face these regulatory challenges armed with a stable and secure laboratory information management system (LIMS) and laboratory automation solutions. LIMS solutions can provide a cost-effective means to ensure that product standards are met, product is delivered as quickly as possible, and managers and staff have the tools to effectively do their jobs. While there are many commercially available LIMS solutions, it is critical that laboratory managers perform due diligence to ensure that the system they select will be successful in the lab. Some ways in which an LIMS vendor can differentiate itself includes: having ISO 9001 certification offering a qualified staff, being a certified Microsoft Gold Partner, and offering software solutions based on the latest technology that allows users to leverage the Internet, tablets and smartphones.

Implementing an LIMS: The problem and the solution

A microbiology laboratory of a meat processor was looking for ways to eliminate transcription errors, and shorten its analysis turnaround time and reporting time through automation. The company was experiencing increasing sample volume, which would require hiring additional resources that had to be trained and deployed. However, taking on more personnel was not an option. To manage its growing sample volume, the company was seeking an LIMS that could also interface with its laboratory instruments and manage plant samples from multiple remote sites. An evaluation of current processes revealed multiple opportunities to automate data entry, reporting, and eliminate dual and triple entry while accelerating and automating data handling and test scheduling.

Samples, including raw materials, finished products and plant samples, were sent from multiple plants to the laboratory daily for environmental monitoring. The current manual system was labor intensive and required that all processes be manually checked and re-checked for accuracy prior to data release. Data was entered into the manual systems multiple times. Instrument data was not integrated with the reporting and the lab was increasing its sample volume for the instruments alone by up to 900 samples per day. Primary reasons for investing in LIMS automation included:

•    Having the ability to do more work with the same resources (removing manual tasks)
•    Enhancing data management into a single, secure data base
•    Meeting regulatory compliance goals
•    Operating under enhanced efficiency and data quality
•    Facilitation of standards and increased communication across their operations
•    Cost savings

Automation reduces transcription errors, increases productivity, enhances data quality and accelerates result delivery. Faster turnaround translates into faster product release, longer shelf-life and ultimately, cost savings.

Then: Prior to implementing the LIMS, samples would arrive at the food processor’s laboratory each morning. From there, they were manually sorted, paperwork was organized, and checks were conducted to verify receipt of samples.

Now: LIMS has significantly streamlined the process. Each morning, a work list is printed from the LIMS, identifying which samples will be received from the plants. The samples are organized and prepared for analysis and placed on the instruments with barcoded work lists for rapid and accurate set up.

The microbiology laboratory leveraged an automated food pathogen detection system to test for Listeria spp., Salmonella spp. and E.coli:0157:H7 on various sample types. Prior to automation, the manual steps of loading the sample IDs, scanning the print outs from the instruments, and then entering the data into reports with secondary review required 40 to 45 minutes per batch of 60 samples.

 Two of the four instruments interfaced with a LIMS.

Implementation of the LIMS has reduced report review time to five minutes. The data is received by the LIMS, and the email is automatically parsed and ready to receive the samples. The emailed worksheets, which are also automatically imported into the LIMS, eliminate several manual steps, including the time in which the laboratory team spent cross-checking samples with the paperwork and calling for missing samples. In this case, the automation has reduced the amount of paperwork and significantly streamlined the process. Now the laboratory knows which samples it will be receiving each day and can quickly match the samples to previously imported work lists.

Once the samples are loaded on the pathogen detection instrument to match the work list from the LIMS, the screening is conducted and the data is sent back to the LIMS, with the final analysis report completed automatically.

 
 An example of a final report automatically generated from the system, which is also automatically emailed.

 

Conclusion

Primary enhancements to implementing an LIMS include higher data quality and significant time savings (a conservative estimate: LIMS typically saves customers between 25-45% of time on their operations). On the instrument integration alone, the automation saved 35 to 40 minutes of work per batch (a batch contains 60 samples), and a typical day includes 10 to12 batches, or up to 720 test results per day. Conservatively, if we allot 35 minutes per batch and 10 batches per day, the time savings are nearly six     hours daily, and this is only from interfacing four instruments. Additional time savings are also realized as a result of reducing data errors.

An alternative solution to hiring additional staff to work in the lab involved examining the benefits of automation to leverage existing resources and allowing them to be more productive. This path eliminated mundane tasks and allowed existing lab staff to focus on the LIMS  (managing, tracking and organizing data) and automation (barcoding, scanning, instrument integration, automated email imports and automated reporting). Laboratory staff was trained on-site and received follow-up training at the LIMS Boot Camp. As a result, workflows were streamlined, sample throughput was accelerated, and the lab experienced faster turnaround times.

Other benefits of deploying a new LIMS in the laboratory include increasing data security, having an audit trail if any approved and validated results required a change, full traceability, facilitating standardization across the organization, reducing the amount of paper forms, and automating the release and reporting process.

About the Author

Dr. Christine Paszko has extensive expertise in LIMS, laboratory automation and food safety testing. She is currently the VP of Sales and Marketing at Accelerated Technology Laboratories, Inc., (ATL). Prior to joining ATL, she worked at Applied Biosystems. She was responsible for the creation, marketing and sales of molecular test kits that leveraged the TaqMan technology to detect major foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli 0157.

Getting Ready for FSMA: How a Laboratory Information Management System Can Help

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Investing in a LIMS will give food testing labs, growers, producers and manufacturers the traceability they need to keep their products safe from contamination and to conform to the stricter regulations and reporting required by FSMA.

Do you know where your food comes from? How sure are you that it was grown, processed or produced with your safety as the priority? Increasingly this issue is headline news as we struggle with managing the outbreak of food-borne illnesses caused by the very stuff of our daily lives: salmonella contaminated peanut butter; e-coli contaminated beef and pork; contaminated spinach, lettuce and strawberries; melamine in milk.

In each instance, the grower or producer had inadequate methods in place to trace the original source of the contamination. The Mexican tomato business was devastated in 2009 when tomatoes were wrongly blamed for an outbreak of salmonella that was actually caused by tainted jalapeño peppers. Without proper systems in place to provide traceability, there was no way to know the contamination source. Several people died, many more became ill and a major business was destroyed for lack of information. The ultimate price for those food producers is that not only have they lost revenue due to product recalls, but, more importantly, they have also lost the trust of the buying public – and governments around the world have taken notice.

In the United States, the oversight of food had fallen under a fractured network of agencies responsible for different parts of the production process, from site inspections and safe processing methods, to the documentation of calorie counts and ingredient listings. Some grown and produced foods fell under the auspices of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while food groups that contained a combination of meat, dairy and produce fell under the oversight of the Department of Agriculture. Compound this regulatory environment with the fact that staffing for food inspections had been low compared to the volume of inspection needed to manage safe production. This lack of manpower and the separation of responsibilities exacerbated the ineffectiveness of the regulatory agencies and caused confusion among the consuming public.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years, aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it. The result of this legislation for consumers should be greater safety of their grown and produced foods. The impact for food producers will be mandates for upgraded business and operations plans, investments in instrumentation, software and manpower, and a safer food supply chain. This white paper discusses how to respond to FSMA, the role that traceability plays in it, and how leading food producers have implemented best practice solutions.

Employing a LIMS to meet the demanding FSMA requirements

The most important common thread throughout the FSMA is traceability. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) play a critical role in the traceability of quality in the production process from farm to fork, providing such capabilities as:

  • Automated data collection from testing and delivering the records of proof that are required for regulatory compliance;
  • A secure environment for monitoring batch relationships between raw materials, processed materials and packaged goods;
  • A centralized system that collects, stores, processes and reports all the data generated within food laboratories, allowing a complete overview of the quality of any product;
  • Automated checks for out-of-specification results and identification of suspect products to prevent release pending investigation; and
  • Assurance that all (standard, fast turnaround and condition sensitive) samples are handled and processed correctly.

Furthermore, a LIMS provides the producer with the knowledge that the quality of the product meets the standards set by the regulator, while recording that data for any subsequent inspection. Auditors can review uniform compliance reports and the certificates of inspection stored within the LIMS whenever required to confirm consumer safety.

Ultimately, a LIMS plays a key role in the integration of the laboratory environment with critical enterprise systems to facilitate faster, more informed decisions. This makes laboratory data available to process control systems, giving managers immediate accessibility to results, as well as cascading any release data through to enterprise resource planning systems.

For some food testing laboratories, commercial LIMS have been too costly for the business to absorb and support, forcing them to rely on inefficient manual and error-prone home-grown systems, spreadsheets or paper-based methods. The new legislation will put enormous strain on these labs to remain compliant. Investing in a LIMS will give food testing labs, growers, producers and manufacturers the traceability they need to keep their products safe from contamination and to conform to the stricter regulations and reporting required of the FSMA.

Case Studies: LIMS providing traceability for food worldwide

Chr. Hansen is one of the world’s top food ingredient companies. The company standardized on Thermo Scientific LIMS across all of its six culture production sites in the United States, Denmark, France and Germany to ensure optimum quality control in starter culture production. The LIMS implementation has delivered considerable benefits, including real-time, automated entry and processing of laboratory data, and fast extraction of results, leading to increased laboratory productivity and accelerated sample turnaround. Chr. Hansen has also integrated the LIMS with its existing ERP system, so that test results authorized in the LIMS by lab personnel can be immediately available for the processing facilities technicians and laboratory administrators.

Molkerei Alois Müller produces more than a third of all yogurt eaten in the UK from the Market Drayton factory. The Müller UK labs focus mainly on production Quality Control. Every step in the process undergoes quality checks, which are managed and stored with the LIMS. Müller UK selected Thermo Scientific LIMS to manage their QC data for raw materials, in -process, and finished dairy desserts. The LIMS reduced the amount of error-prone manual paperwork processes and expedited testing, while providing the necessary reports and documentation for a complete audit trail during regulatory inspections. By using a LIMS, Müller is able to trend all data and make quality and safety decisions, as well as any necessary improvements, much faster and more reliably.

Sino Analytica in Qingdao City, China is a world-class food analysis laboratory that provides contract analytical services to a wide range of food suppliers, trading companies, and retailers from China and all over the world. Sino Analytica historically managed data manually in the laboratory with a monthly load of over 1,200 samples. The company chose Thermo Scientific LIMS to support its food safety contract laboratory and meet the internal quality standards and accreditation requirements for food exports to countries including the United States. The LIMS has helped laboratory managers achieve faster assembly, collation, and review of information and data relating to QA/QC activities. The LIMS also demonstrates that the company meets the requirements of auditors and provides documentation for processing internal QC data.

This article has been adapted from a white paper presented by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Click here to access the white paper. For More Information about Thermo Scientific informatics solutions for the food and beverage industry, visit: www.thermoscientific.com/foodsafetyresources.

Sangita Viswanathan, Former Editor-in-Chief, FoodSafetyTech

The Value of Effective LIMS

By Sangita Viswanathan
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Sangita Viswanathan, Former Editor-in-Chief, FoodSafetyTech

With the announcement of proposed rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (or FSMA), the burden of food safety testing and record keeping placed on smaller and medium size food companies and use of contract testing labs is growing tremendously. So how do these labs manage growing requests for testing, and increasing volumes of data and demand for records? 

Here is where Laboratory Information Management Systems or LIMS play an important role, in helping labs manage the testing requests, handle all the data and records, be better prepared for audits, and comply with changing regulations, says Anthony Uzzo, President & Co-Founder of Core Informatics.

Uzzo has extensive experience in software engineering, informatics, laboratory automation, project management and science. He co-founded Core Informatics in 2006, along with Jim Gregory (Executive VP of Customer Solutions). A biomedical engineer, Uzzo started his career as a pharmaceutical lab scientist, and in that role, realized that most LIMS solutions were rigid in their scope. 

“This exposed me to different labs having different data management requirements, and gave me a profound appreciation of the impact of data management and having effective LIMS in labs. When starting Core Informatics, my goal was to provide labs with the opportunity to tailor their data management system to their needs without having to change their workflow, systems, personnel etc.,” he describes. 

We present below some excerpts from an interview with Food Safety Tech (FST).

FST: Why are LIMS so important for food and beverage companies in the current environment?

Uzzo:The food and beverage industry faces increasing regulatory scrutiny, pressures to control costs, and the challenge of maintaining quality throughout a global supply chain. A LIMS solution needs to be a solution to aid companies in the delivery and discovery of products, while complying with industry and government regulations.

The LIMS need to identify hazards, determine and monitor critical control points, and establish corrective actions and verification procedures to ensure that standards are met and the system is functioning properly. Our HACCP compliant system helps companies in the F&B industry to monitor products and make sure they do not become contaminated with chemicals or food pathogens. 

FST: How can food companies and labs choose the ideal LIMS solution?

Uzzo: According to me, the top criteria for choosing a LIMS solution would be flexibility; being web-based (able to use the LIMS with smart devices for data entry and access and no antiquated client server technology); and total cost of ownership.

There are now all sorts of novel testing methodologies being applied for food safety, and as a result, the data management requirements are constantly changing. Solutions would need to facilitate administrators to use the LIMS without writing a new code, and easily and quickly enable multi-site collaboration. For instance, there are new rapid detection technologies, such as PCR technologies for Salmonella detection, now in the market. An ideal LIMS should be able to rapidly process these results and use that data analysis, come up with efficient reports and enable lab scientists to do their job in a cost-effective manner. 

Cloud-based solutions offer great advantages in providing the ability to auto-scale, handle any amount of data, send out samples to other labs, support multi-site collaboration etc. Core Informatics, for instance, is fully embracing the power of the cloud. 

An ideal LIMS solution should address chain of custody from registration to report. The final report needs to be mentioned and be able to track who had handled that sample and every derivative of it, how it has been handled, under which condition it has been stored and for how long, and if appropriate procedures have been followed for storage and handling. Downstream, if there’s any problem, we need to be able to go back upstream and identify the correct source material.

LIMS solutions need to be prepared as new laws come into play in the next few years. Industry trends are accelerating the use of contract food testing labs. How effectively companies are able to process their data management requirements such as automatically receiving and recording test requests, preparing for their audits and complying with their food safety management programs, will all become critical.

Future Demand on Food Lab Managers

By Sangita Viswanathan
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How will food labs meet the demands of the future? What role will FSMA regulations play? And how are labs dealing with globalization of the food chain?

Food labs – both within food manufacturing companies and external contract labs – are facing a multitude of challenges: Increasing regulatory changes and compliance pressures; greater volume of testing; newer technologies and testing methods; demand for faster, and more efficient results….. How are labs and lab managers keeping track of, and apace with, all these changes? 


David White, Chief Science Officer and Research Director at U.S. Food and Drug Administration (left, in the picture); Dave Evanson, President, EMS (middle); and Alvin Lee, Director, Center for Processing Innovation at the Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH), Illinois Institute of Technology (right), talked about these issues in a panel discussion moderated by Marc Carter, President of MC2, Inc. at Food Safety Tech’s Food Labs Conference organized last month in Chicago. We present some excerpts from the discussion below. 

 

What’s keeping you up at night?

Globalization of the food chain is a significant concern. FDA’s David White talked about the emphasis that FDA places on testing food products globally, increasing standards to get global labs on par with FDA’s accepted levels of testing, and using equivalent methods. 

“Southeast Asia and China, and the testing done in such regions, will be critical. This will need time and resources, but we should all collectively aim to get there,” White added. 

What keeps him up at night? White described that food labs of the future need to help companies be one step ahead of the next contamination. “Who would have thought about melamine, for instance? We need to consider which other products would be ideal for substitution and companies need to identify where their vulnerabilities lie. Everyone has a part to play in food safety – FDA doesn’t have the resources to do everything by themselves. Testing for the unknown, what’s the next melamine, that’s what keeps me up at night,” White explained. 

 

What’s the impact of FSMA regulations on the food lab market?

Getting labs to have in place specific food testing methodologies, HACCP and verification, plans to reduce contamination etc., will all improve under FSMA regulations. 

All these will take some time, says White, “but we are communicating to labs about where we stand and how the new rules can help take them to where they need to be.” 

IFSH’s Alvin Lee feels that there will be a lot more demand for documentation because of the new regulations: “Labs will have to establish certain processes or steps with a plan for preventive control, and find effective ways to control and manage data and documentation.” 

Echoing this sentiment, White said that labs need to figure out figure out how to manage databases more efficiently. “How do we create and store data, and produce it in a format that’s user-friendly? All these will be key challenges,” White described. 

 

How do food labs manage data currently?

Dave Evanson felt that there is a good history of LIMS being available and used. “Some labs have done a pretty good job of embracing that. But at the other end of the spectrum, there are some labs that still use a lot of paper. But many of these are starting to make changes. 

“There is also a lot of interest in going beyond just getting data, and learning more. And there is a push toward the producer of the data to get more information. New generation LIMS need to address this,” Evanson explained.

LIMS: Overwhelmed by Lab Data?

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Thermo Fisher Scientific’s LIMS expert, Colin Thurston, explains how laboratory informatics can help food labs cope with large amounts of data as well as regulatory compliance.

The real challenge for food safety labs now is the amount of data that they are generating. “As analytical techniques have evolved, and instrumentation methods have become more sensitive, you can now process more and more information from a single sample. That kind of information becomes extremely difficult for a lab manager to process and to sift,” says Colin Thurston, Product Director, Informatics, for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The big challenge for food processors is not the quality of the food but the brand. If something goes wrong with the food product, the consumer is going to remember it. So it is really critical for the lab to able to get the results to verify that the food is safe to eat, that too within a short time. 

What role does Laboratory Information Management System or LIMS play? “With the right LIMS solution, we can have the ability to automate, highlight the outliers, know which samples we have to go back and recheck, and which ones they have to reprocess because of challenges with the data. 

“Labs now are facing challenges around regulatory compliance. Regulations are changing and the food chain is becoming extended. Labs have to process a particular sample against many regulations as food companies want that product to be shipped to the U.S., consumed in Japan, Europe and so on. LIMS can store multiple sets of checks, carry out that process, and validate that product against all these requirements,” explains Thurston.