Finding an experienced and accredited third-party lab partner is vitally important in the food and beverage industry to assure consistently accurate results. There is a lot of competition, and there are many choices available to lab managers that may already be stretched thin by their job roles and duties. 

The synergy between a third-party lab partner and its ability to impact revenue is crucial to nail down. The lab and the business influence each other and affect how the lab manager handles leveraging contract testing for food and beverage needs.

As a food testing laboratory manager, managing your lab means ensuring efficient workflows with accurate data. In addition to practicing quality control (QC), you also have to carry out your processes in compliance with industry standards. Regulatory bodies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and local agencies of countries to which you export may all have specific standards that you need to  follow.

The food supply chain is a system that comprises small and large domestic and foreign producers, processors, packers, distributors, and transporters with few common business practices. It is a system that is becoming more global: Fresh fruits and vegetables are now available year-round, as well as a wide array of exotic foods. These factors have increased the risk of a significant food safety incident.

Maintaining quality standards across batches of finished products in the food and beverage industry can be difficult. There’s a thin margin between a spectacular and a terrible outcome in this industry. Therefore, quality control (QC) is necessary to minimize the chances of these “bad products” from reaching the end consumer.

Maintaining regulatory compliance is crucial to success in the food and beverage industry. Failure to follow guidelines may result in consequences, ranging from financial loss and operational downtime to complete shutdown.

On a daily basis, lab managers face a daunting amount of data they need in order to maintain the integrity of their quality program. This challenge is especially true within the food and beverage industry, where product safety is dependent on timely and accurate laboratory testing. Fortunately there is a well-defined process to ensure that the food being produced and shipped from a company is safe and contains no contaminants.