Food & Beverage Industry

Looking for a food testing lab?

   Allegations of plastic contamination?
      Concerned about packaging migration?
         Unknown substances found in meat products?
            Complaints of off-odors or off-flavors?

Chemir has helped hundreds of food and beverage manufacturers with challenging food testing issues. Our highly trained chemists are experienced in materials identification, physical contamination identification and food packaging testing. 

Our scientists design investigations to confront difficult problems with food contamination, analyzing products such as meat, candy, soft drinks and more. Not a routine lab, Chemir offers independent answers with customized chemical analysis. Types of food contamination issues analyzed include off-odors, off-taste, packaging interactions and foreign object identification. We utilize multiple methods of analysis with state-of-the-art instrumentation such as SEM/EDXA, FT-IR, LC/MS, GC/MS, NMR and more.

Our facility is cGMP compliant, FDA registered and DEA licensed, and is centrally located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri.

Available 24/7 for Emergencies

When unforeseen quality issues occur, the scientists at our food analysis laboratory are available 24/7 to solve complex, non-routine problems using a customized approach. We also welcome rush projects for emergency food contamination issues. Our food testing investigations have played key roles in crisis management, saving companies time and money in critical situations.

Toxicity Risk Assessment

When situations involve alleged harmful or toxic chemical contaminants, we partner with established scientists in the field of toxicology to perform hazard analysis.  This understanding of chemical toxicity, along with our analytical investigations, result in a full toxicity risk assessment report.

 

Food Testing Services:

Case Study:

Possible Pesticide Contamination

A door at a meat processing plant was left open while a pesticide was being sprayed. The processor came to Chemir to determine if their product had been contaminated. Chemir was contacted on a Sunday afternoon and results were needed by 8am Monday morning because 2000 butchers were holding operations.

We obtained a sample of the actual pesticide used, which was a mixture of 3 main components. First, samples of the meat from different locations were pooled to allow for faster sampling. While the samples were being shipped to our laboratory, Chemir scientists quickly performed method development experiments to ensure low limits of detection. Once the samples arrived, the meat was extracted using methylene chloride. Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) was then used to screen the methylene chloride extracts, looking for these 3 components. When none of the analytes were observed in the meat extracts, a portion of the meat was intentionally spiked with the pesticide at levels below the allowable limits (ppb levels) to confirm the effectiveness of the test method. All 3 analytes were observed in the spiked sample at the appropriate levels.

Figure 1: GC/MS total ion chromatograms from the analysis of the pesticide, sample and pesticide spiked sample

Out of the 36 samples analyzed, all were found to be free of the pesticide components below detection limits. After a conference call with local meat inspectors as well as the USDA in Washington DC, the testing protocol was accepted and the meat was released. The processor was able to resume operations on Monday morning.

 

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