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Food and Environmental Testing Advice

Verification testing is an important part of any food safety management programme. But most businesses have a limited budget for testing. You also need to be sure you're testing for the right things in the right products.

Questions to ask yourself

  • Should we be doing microbiological testing on our food products?
  • What about verifying that our cleaning programme is effective?
  • Are pathogens like Listeria lurking in our factory, and how should we go about monitoring this?
  • Are there any regulatory/customer standards or guidelines that we need to meet?
  • What should we test for?
  • How many samples should we take?
  • What limits are acceptable?
  • How do we conduct shelf life testing?
  • Do we need to conduct any chemical testing, e.g. to confirm that we are using preservatives at the correct levels?
  • What do we do if the results indicate our food may not be safe, or meet our customers' standards?

Microbiology Laboratory Technical Assessments 
(to meet the technical aspects of ISO 17025 and regulatory requirements)

If you operate a microbiology testing laboratory (either for in-house testing of your food products, or testing food and environmental samples for others), attention to detail is critical. Many factors can affect the integrity of microbiological testing results.

A robust independent assessment of the technical aspects of your laboratory methods and quality assurance practices, is a valuable contribution to your internal auditing activities.

Shane Hopgood, our Managing Director, has been an IANZ Technical Expert in the field of microbiology testing for more than 25 years. He can help you ensure that you are operating to best practice standards.

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