Put Your Product to the Test: LIMS Enhances Product Safety Testing

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented a Food Protection Plan that builds in prevention first, then intervention, and finally, response. It is a forward-looking concept that uses science and modern information technology to facilitate the identification of potential hazards ahead of time, to improve intervention methods, and to trigger immediate response.2,4 The plan presents a robust strategy designed to protect the U.S. food supply from both unintentional contamination and deliberate attack. The Food Protection Plan aims to address the changes in food sources, production, and consumption that are prevalent in today’s world.

The FDA has also introduced the Import Safety Action Plan, which includes 14 broad recommendations and 50 short- and long-term action steps to improve import safety. Among the plan’s most important aims are to establish a stronger certification process, provide incentives to encourage good importer practices, increase transparency by publishing the names of certified producers and importers, and strengthen penalties for both foreign and domestic entities.

LIMS in the Food Industry

Laboratories in the food industry play an important role in the food safety compliance process. They compare laboratory test results with specifications to ensure food safety and integrity and to limit the extent of product recalls. Reports that detail the results of such analyses must be disseminated to both consumers and regulators in a timely manner. Traceability of batches and speed of analysis are of utmost importance. Critical control points require monitoring, verification, and recordkeeping. LIMS software addresses all these requirements.

Modern food companies need a flexible LIMS that will meet the needs of the broader organization. An ideal LIMS is one that serves as an integrated platform capable of supporting key enterprise processes and systems, facilitating open communication with laboratory and enterprise applications, and offering client or server functionality for greater access to information across the organization. With an enterprise LIMS, food processing companies can spot trends and monitor product quality more quickly and easily, dramatically improving their overall quality control process. An integrated approach results in better data flow, less redundant data, virtually no transcription errors, and increased laboratory efficiency. Data are available to managers and decision-makers organization-wide, leading to rapid, data-driven business decision-making.

A global solution helps to reduce the total cost of ownership by centralizing and consolidating information technology and technical support personnel. An enterprise LIMS reduces downtime and increases productivity for the end user. It can also lower the cost of implementation, upgrades, application development, and training. In addition, standardization streamlines vendor relationships and improves purchasing power. The reporting function is one of the most important features of a LIMS solution: Laboratory information captured and processed by a LIMS can be organized and presented automatically by many different parts of the organization, using a wide variety of report formats.

Applying the System

One of the world’s top food ingredients companies needed a LIMS capable of ensuring optimum quality control in starter culture production. The system had to be easy to use—even by non-specialized personnel. Additionally, the system needed to take a comprehensive approach to analysis, with each analysis request handled entirely online, from sample login and test assignment to data capture and final reporting. In addition, the company needed a system that would facilitate full automation and secure access to certain confidential data only to authorized personnel. Seamless integration with the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was also crucial.

In order to meet these requirements, the company implemented and standardized a Thermo Scientific LIMS solution across all of its six culture production sites in four countries. Since the deployment of the Thermo Scientific LIMS, this producer has experienced considerable benefits with regard to real-time, global availability of analytical results, leading to increased laboratory productivity and accelerated sample turnaround. The system has enabled direct comparison of results between research and production quality control whenever new products are being launched. Operation and administration of the system has been kept simple. Key performance indicators are easily calculated, and different facilities are measured by common criteria. Global bottlenecks can now be identified easily and in a timely manner.