Food-Testing Laboratories Key Terms

Learn food-testing laboratories key terms to ensure the safety of your products

When it comes to food, safety and cleanliness matter above all else. Every restaurateur or owner of a food-manufacturing facility understands the consequences a business can suffer if it doesn't take precautions to ensure that its foods and beverages don't present a serious health risk. To that end, businesses today depend on food-testing laboratories to perform standardized tests that will identify and remove harmful contaminants. Here's an overview of key facts and terms that any one in the food business should be aware of in order to understand the significance of food testing.

 

Natural contaminants

This broad term includes the insect filth, rodent hair and parasites that can make their way into the foods we eat, either by accident or through food cultivation and processing.
Try: Read the discussion at Six Wise to find out why these natural contaminants are more prevalent in the consumer food supply than you think. Six Wise also analyzes the dangers these contaminants present to humans and identifies the most common foods that natural contaminants attack.

Package integrity

When companies test for food package integrity, they try to make sure these packages are able to keep food clean and sterile from the time immediately following manufacture or processing to when they reach the consumer.
Try: The discussion of package integrity at TM Electronics takes you through the testing process. It also compares the main types of package integrity testing used by food scientists today.

Food-thermal processing

Food-thermal processing is a method of applying heat to foods so as to eliminate harmful microorganisms.
Try: Strasburger & Siegel briefly explain the food-thermal processing system and discuss regulatory filings that food-testing labs must make in order to perform these analyses.

Shelf-life testing

Shelf-life testing is performed so that researchers can accurately estimate the time frame during which a product will remain safe for consumption once it has left the manufacturer.
Try: Read EMSL Analytical to understand the criteria and model for shelf-life testing that any food laboratory uses. EMSL also explains how this analysis predicts a product's shelf life.

Extraneous-matter analysis

This broad term includes all objective measurements to find foreign matter in food and beverages.
Try: The approach to extraneous-matter analysis taken by Central Hudson Laboratory represents the typical approach that any food-testing company takes. Central Hudson Lab explains the main targets of this analysis and how it can be used to detect a product's sanitation history.

Food-sanitation inspections

Performed at food businesses by third parties, food-sanitation inspections are intended to help restaurant and food-service owners identify any practices that pose a serious health risk. For example, a food-sanitation inspector may detect that your cooks are not doing an adequate job of sanitizing work surfaces that were used to prepare poultry.
Try: Microbac details the components of a food-sanitation inspection and how these inspections can be customized to your food business.

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