Technical solution

Food adulteration test service

　　Food-related risks can be divided into four major aspects: food quality, food safety, food defense, and food fraud (Spink and Moyer, 2011). Food fraud refers to the deliberate mixing, dilution, substitution, counterfeiting and mislabeling of any part of the food supply chain, which may happen during raw materials, semi-finished products, finished products production or food packaging. Food fraud is driven by the temptation of economic interests. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration refers to this type of fraud as "economic motived adulteration."

　　In the past, most food adulteration behavior was only exposed to the outside world through on-site factory audits or reported by food operators. In recent years, thanks to the improvement of inspection and analysis technology, adulteration can be identified with the support of scientific data. However, food processing technology has been changing on a monthly basis, which increases the diversity of food adulteration. A single inspection method may not be able to detect all adulteration at once. In response to different levels and types of food adulteration, SGS provides various inspection services; for complex food adulteration and reduces the risk of food adulteration by using different detection tools.

　　SGS uses stable isotope mass spectrometry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS), high-resolution mass spectrometer and other inspection methods to provide the following food adulteration testing services:

• Claiming natural origin but adding synthetic substances
• Mix/replace high-priced ingredients with lower-priced ingredients
• Genetically modified (GMO) food mixes/replaces non-GMO foods
• Incorrect indication of plant and animal species
• Mixed with other species as target species

Preservation test evaluation

　　The " Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation " regulates that the food companies should use Chinese and common symbols to clearly indicate the expiration date on the container or outer packaging of food. The expiration date of the food represents the deadline for maintaining the value of the product. A complete evaluation of the food's expiration date to ensure that the food is within the effective date and avoid spoilage or other violations of food hygiene management regulations is the challenge that all food companies will face.

　　Food quality changes are affected by the raw materials used, the manufacturing process, and the transportation, storage, and sales environment. Therefore, to determine the expiration date of the food, it is necessary to fully consider various objective indicators that cause food deterioration and design a preservation test and sampling plan.

　　SGS's food preservation test is a project-based service. We will propose a preservation test plan based on the product type, sales status, regulatory requirements and expected time of the product. We assist the company to fully evaluate the product's risk factors during storage and work out the shelf life and expiration date of the product.

EMP (environmental monitoring plan)

　　The Food Factory Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) 's primary purpose is to conduct sampling and testing processes for hazardous pollution control measures and its standards are much higher than those of food safety regulations or Good Food Hygiene Practices (GHP). The food hygiene and safety issues that the public focuses on mostly discuss the risk control of raw materials, the microbiology and quality management of end products, etc. However, most of the problems caused by pathogenic bacteria, spoilage bacteria and allergens to consumers are immediate and severe hazards. Most of these contaminations originate from the manufacturing process, which may be the poor environment of the production plant or the operators' poor hygiene habits. Via long-term monitoring of contamination sources and occur frequency in the factory area so that contaminations in the food manufacturing process can be effectively reduced.

　　In addition, the US FDA Food Safety Modern Act (FSMA) emphasizes the importance of EMP, through long-term monitoring of hazardous contamination sources in the food factory environment and adopts valid cleaning and disinfection procedures to prevent the end products from contamination. Therefore, for food manufacturers, to maintain sustainable operations and continue to be internationally competitive, establishing an EMP environmental monitoring plan on scientific basis is an important issue for effectively monitoring product hygiene and safety.

　　The EMP environmental monitoring plan is a relatively new concept. The cases with past implementation experience are still increasing. The SGS food service team has been monitoring the FSMA since the bill passed. SGS frequently discusses with experts and scholars and formed a consulting group to provide consulting services to food companies who need to understand EMP-related content. The SGS food service team will hold EMP planning training courses from time to time. If you want to know more about the EMP environmental monitoring program, please contact the SGS food service team!

Proficiency testing service

　　Proficiency testing is the primary choice for inspection agencies to obtain ISO/IEC 17025 proficiency certification. According to the requirements for proficiency testing activities announced by the Taiwan Accreditation Foundation (TAF) (TAF-CNLA-R05), to ensure the accuracy of laboratory measurement results. ISO/IEC 17025 certified laboratories are required to regularly participate in proficiency tests depend on the risk level for monitoring and continuously evaluating the laboratories’ inspection capabilities. Government supervision sectors or some enterprises will also require the commissioned testing laboratories to participate in proficiency testing to assure the reliability of their test reports.

Benefits that participating in the proficiency testing can help the laboratory achieve:

• Identify differences between laboratories
• Compare detection methods or procedures
• Confirm the measurement uncertainty of the laboratory evaluation
• Training and assessment tools for analysts
• Review the laboratory testing quality trends and risk management

　　SGS cooperates with LGC to provide LGC AXIO proficiency testing services. LGC is a leader in international proficiency testing services and is also the first proficiency testing supplier accredited by UKAS that complies with ISO/IEC17043 (UKAS001). As a national-level measurement center in the UK, LGC provides more than 1,700 capability test programs, including food, beverage, environmental, clinical, pharmaceutical, consumer safety (cosmetics, toys, etc.), petroleum, etc.

　　SGS provides you with one-on-one specialist services, not only assisting you in selecting suitable test items and sessions but also coordinating the transportation of samples and explaining the precautions of the pre-treatment process. Besides, SGS can provide in-depth operating instructions for LGC's ability test platform and offer advanced report interpretation and related suggestion services after the results report is released. Therefore, as long as you sign up through SGS, you can not only save the tedious English communication with LGC but also make in-depth consultations with the SGS professional team based on the results and have individual account passwords to report test results and review reports, which provides considerable privacy and autonomy.