Food Safety Testing

What Is A Food Safety Test?

When consumers are purchasing food, safety is an expectation and an assumption. However, keeping food safe is not always a simple or easy task, and for many foods, there are inherent risks that have to be managed. For this reason, food and beverage businesses implement and monitor many safety measures – like good (hygenic?) manufacturing practices, food safety plans, quality control programs, food safety testing, and inspections – to make sure that the food we eat is safe.

There are many ways in which food can become unsafe and which you, as a producer, must constantly guard against. Foreign material (i.e., anything that shouldn’t be in the food, like metal, wood, or plastic) can occasionally make its way into a product. Pests can infest or contaminate a product, and chemical residues from pesticides or equipment can make a product unfit and unsafe. Some foods even come with inherent risks like small bones that need to be removed, or toxins that can occur naturally in the food. All of these aspects need to be taken into account, but there is another risk – one that we often can’t see, but that is a major threat to food safety – that needs to be considered: pathogenic microorganisms.

Microorganisms

Microorganisms, or microbes, are a major issue for food manufacturers and can pose a serious threat to your consumers and your company. While not all microbes are harmful, there are certain ones that can cause illness and death, and that are not at all uncommon in agricultural settings and food production facilities. They can enter foods or beverages because of improper cleaning, unsanitary packaging or transportation. They can also be passed on by the workers handling the food. Even a tiny contamination can become a huge problem if the processes that are meant to kill or control microorganisms fail. For example, sometimes bacteria are present at low levels in raw foods, but a cooking process that is meant to destroy them falls short, and they are allowed to survive and grow to unsafe levels. Alternatively, a low pH or water activity might change during storage, allowing an initially small number of microorganisms to flourish and spoil the food. Because these types of microbial problems are usually invisible to the eye, it’s possible that a dangerous problem may remain invisible as well.

Food Safety Testing with RL Food Testing Laboratory

If you suspect there may be problems regarding the microbial safety of your food or beverage product, food safety testing is an absolute necessity. RL Food Testing Laboratory can help you determine if your product is safe, giving you peace of mind and ensuring that your customers are receiving safe, wholesome food. Food safety testing can be complicated – but don’t worry, our representatives will help walk you through the process. This includes a consultation to help you determine what type of food safety testing your product needs, based on which microorganisms are able to grow in your food or beverage. After testing is done, you’ll receive a complete report from the microbiologist at our food testing lab, letting you know the results of the food safety test as well as the implications for your product. With RL Food Testing Laboratory, your food safety testing can be easy, quick, and most importantly, accurate – so you can be confident in the food you work hard to produce.