LABORATORY TECHNICAL SUPPORT

ALD has collaborated with more than 200 laboratories in Europe, Africa and Asia to strengthen food safety and quality. We can offer expertise in a wide range of laboratory activities.

End of training for chemical analyses of fish oil (Mauritania)

TECHNICAL
TRAINING

Examples of at-the-bench technical training in chemical and microbiological analyses:

Pesticide residues analyses;
Antibiotics AI;
Iodine fortification in salt;
Milk testing;
Rapid test of antibiotics in milk and meat for inspectors;
Residual chlorine testing for ice factories;
Hygiene tests for fishery establishments.

Example of products tested: fish and fishery products, pharmaceutical products, salt, honey, cereals, nuts, tea, milk and milk products, fruits, vegetables, soil, water.

Examples of parameters: pesticides residues, mycotoxins, vitamins, fiber content, oil content, protein content, ash content, moisture, additives, colorants and contaminants …

Examples of methods used: all usual wet chemistry methods, ELISA, quick tests, spectrophotometer, bomb calorimeter, HPLC-UV/Fl/DAD, GC-ECD/FID, GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS systems.

LABORATORY ASSESSMENT

Assessments are carried to:

Evaluate the analytical capabilities, in particular to support the food safety;
Audit the Quality Management Systems (ISO 17025 or other);
Recommend future interventions;
Analyse equipment needs;
Determine training needs.

Following assessment, recommendations are made to determine:

Which capacities should be developped first?
How best to invest funds to support and develop analytical capacities, food safety, trade, export and/or food safety?
What technical training is required?
What are reasonable expectations (for example regarding ISO 17025 accreditation)?

Delivery of Mobile Food Safety Laboratory (Bangladesh)

EXPERT ADVICE ON DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

When government, international projects or donors plan support to laboratories to develop future laboratory activities, ALD can provide you with the expertise to successfully determine:

What analyses and tests are feasible with existing equipment, consumables and expertise?
Which constraints and weaknesses you are likely to face?
How your strategy fits into national plans or strategies?
Achievable objectives.

Strategy or actions plans may contain:

Analyses to be performed, types and number to be delivered;
Quality procedure to improve or introduce;
Equipment, consumables and refurbishment to procure;
Training needs;
Expected costs and time frame.

LABORATORY EQUIPMENT

We supply routine and specialised laboratory equipment, consumables, chemicals and analytical apparatus. We also provide expertise for renovation and refurbishment of laboratories. Because we have hands-on experience of most of the equipment we supply, we can advise you on the best equipment for your situation.

LABORATORY EQUIPMENT SUPPLY

Recent deliveries:

Rwanda: glassware, IT equipment and testing kits for antibiotics in meat.
Burundi: glassware and chemicals for fertilizer analysis.
Zimbabwe: chemicals.
Bangladesh: Mobile Food Safety Laboratory microbiology consumables.
Burundi: food testing consumables.
Myanmar: pesticide residue analysis consumables.

Depending on quantities, type of items, your location and the urgency of the delivery, deliveries are made by post, air or courier. If required, we can install the equipment and arrange technical training for its proper use.

LABORATORY RENOVATION

We can help you to prepare and follow the renovation and refurbishment of you laboratories (chemistry, microbiology or material) according to your budget and testing objectives. We can advice your team to prepare:

Electrical supply plans;
Water supply and waste water plans;
Air filtration and air conditioning plans;
Refurbishment plans for floors, walls, windows, door;
Specifications for all furniture items (bench, fume cupboards, sinks, cupboards, chairs, safety showers);
Contacts with laboratory furniture manufacturers ;
Organisation of international delivery;
Follow up of work on site.

EQUIPMENT SPECIFICATIONS AND TENDER EVALUATION

Poorly written technical specifications lead to the procurement of under performing equipment, delays when re-tendering is required, poor value for money and bad after-sell services.

We have expertise in preparing technical specification for thousands of items:

all types of glassware;
small laboratory equipment (balances, heaters, pHmeters ...);
chemicals and culture media;
analytical apparatus (HPLC, GC-ECD/FID, AAS, GC-MS/MS, Spectrophotometer...).

FOOD SAFETY

Besides laboratory support, we provide expertise in related Food Safety areas such as veterinary public health, awareness & training, and border controls inspections.

VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH

We collaborate with Food Control Consultants Ltd (FCC) for projects involving veterinary health, fishery and training for food safety inspection.

Food Control Consultants Ltd represents a group of experts providing advice on food safety, veterinary public and animal health issues for the food industry (e.g. slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, dairy plants, fish processing plants, milk processing plants) and competent authorities. Furthermore FCC has expertise in the field of veterinary border controls, animal welfare, animal feed and veterinary medicinal products.

FCC is able to provide assessment and advice on veterinary matters having extensive experience in improving official controls within national food safety systems as well as internal control systems for the industry, such as prerequisite programmes and HACCP. The company has clients within the EU Member States and in Third Countries exporting to the EU market.

FCC also offers lectures and advice to governments, agencies and individual companies.

AWARENESS AND TRAINING

An efficient Food Safety system includes education, training and awareness. This enables a country to set a wide food safety culture, to implement food safety guidance and to train food handlers.

Depending on your needs, we can support you to:

define key food safety subjects where public awareness is required;
identify food sectors where guidelines are required;
outline training content and objectives according to your specific situation;
create training manuals; and
create and deliver training courses.

BORDER CONTROL AND INSPECTION

ALD has developed a series of mobile guides to support inspectors at border posts or in the field. The e-Inspection Guides are designed to be used on mobile devices (smart phones or tablets), in the field online or offline. They include valuable information to support decision making at the point of inspection. The e-Inspection Guides are tailored to each country or inspection service. For each product, the e-Inspection Guides include:

Section I: General information about the product

HS code;
general information on the products;
safety or quality issues often associated with the product;
known or expected issues in the country where the m-Inspection Guidance is used.

Section II: Inspection Guidance

parameters to check;
when sampling and testing is required;
sampling procedures;
where to send samples;
how to interpret results.

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