LIMS, ELN, & Lab Management FAQs

The core principles of food and beverage quality and safety management Proper management of food and beverage quality and safety is vital for not only the manufacturer but also the consumer. Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) methods (described later) remain one of the obvious go-to tools for food and beverage businesses, as it allows them to, when properly…

What ISO/IEC 17025 asks of laboratories While ISO/IEC 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories has laboratory quality control handily in mind, and it is increasingly adopted by laboratories[1], the standard is challenging to adopt, especially for small and academic labs.[2] Additionally, several regions of the world encounter cultural, educational, and cost barriers in attempting implementation and…

Testing within the primary roles of a food and beverage lab Food and beverage laboratory personnel tap into numerous scientific disciplines for the work they do. Among the various roles the food and beverage lab serves, disciplines such as biochemistry, biotechnology, chemical engineering, chemistry, fermentation science, materials science, microbiology, molecular gastronomy, and nutrition and food science are applied.[1][2][3][4] As such,…

History of food and beverage testing and regulation The history of laboratory-based food and beverage tasting is scattered, with little being documented about foodborne illness and food safety until the nineteenth century. However, with a better understanding of bacteria and their relationship to disease, more was being said about the topic by the mid-to late-1800s.[1] In the U.S. Northeast during…

Food and beverage labs and the LAAF program The Food Safety Modernization ACT (FSMA) was signed into law in January 2011, giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broader authority to regulate how the country’s food supply is grown, harvested, and processed. The FSMA was amended in December 2021 to include the Laboratory Accreditation for Analyses of Foods (LAAF)…

International food and beverage safety through regulatory-driven operational standardization When discussing the landscape of food and beverage safety and it regulation, it’s difficult not to mention standards like ISO 22000 and ISO/IEC 17025. Most competitive and well-established food and beverage companies will already be accredited to the ISO 22000:2018 standard, and if they have an in-house research and development (R&D)…

LIMS and quality management In order to be most successful—while meeting the requirements of standards and regulatory pressures—a laboratory must focus on a culture of quality.[1] A quality management system (QMS) is one means for a laboratory to put additional focus on quality, and ISO/IEC 17025:2017—at least in spirit—promotes the adoption of a QMS. This inevitably provides a number of benefits…

ISO/IEC 17025: Supporting quality management in the lab ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories is an internationally recognized standard that places requirements on testing, calibration, and sampling laboratories to demonstrate “the competence, impartiality, and consistent operation” of their business activities.[1] At its core, the standard places a strong focus on implementing procedural and quality management mechanisms (e.g.,…

Base LIMS requirements for construction and engineering labs Like many other industries dealing with large amounts of scientific data and a wide variety of test methods, construction and engineering laboratories often turn to laboratory information management systems (LIMS) to not only better manage the data but also manage a wide variety of laboratory activities, while also attempting to meet regulatory…

Standardized test methods used by construction and engineering laboratories Like other materials testing labs, well-run construction and engineering labs are dependent on standard-based analytical methods developed with the input of the international community. The use of those standardized test methods may be mandated as part of the lab’s efforts towards maintaining accreditation to a laboratory-based quality standard such as ISO/IEC…