Food Testing Services

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Ensure the quality, safety and integrity of your food and feed products and comply with regulations.

Ensuring that your food and feed products and the production environment meet the highest standards for quality, safety and integrity is essential. It enables you to increase consumer confidence in your brand and comply with local, international and industry regulations.

At SGS, we perform a broad range of sophisticated food testing and analytical services at our laboratories in Cambridge, Ashby, Hebden Bridge and Cramlington. Our scientists have a wealth of experience and are fully versed in the many needs of the food industry. We have extensive UK accreditation and can offer rapid turnaround times to meet the increasingly stringent needs of the food production retail sectors.

  • Nutrition and composition analysis
  • Pesticide residue testing
  • Microbiological testing
  • Investigative molecular analysis using bespoke DNA platforms
  • Food allergen testing
  • Mycotoxin testing
  • Dioxins and PCB testing

Discover our wide range of food testing services. Contact an expert today.

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Nutrition and Composition Analysis

SGS offer a comprehensive range of nutrition and composition analysis services to support food manufacturers, suppliers and retailers with food labelling legislation and retailer specific compliance, due diligence and quality control, new product development and surveillance studies.

Our services include:

  • Group 2 nutritional testing
  • Vitamin testing
  • Minerals testing
  • Testing for preservatives and sweeteners

Our UKAS accredited testing laboratories are equipped with state of the art instrumentation. All testing is carried out in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

We can also assess product labelling to ensure that every aspect, including layout and language, complies with legislation, including the EU Food Information to Consumers regulation.

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Pesticide Residue Testing

We use liquid and gas chromatography techniques to test for hundreds of different pesticide residues. Our methods are validated and accredited for a wide range of food types, including fresh produce, dried fruits and vegetables, cereals, nuts and spices.

Our services, at our state of the art lab in Cambridge, include multi-residue determination for over 500 compounds as well as targeted residue analysis, for analytes not included in the multi-residue screening.

We provide full consultancy pre and post-analysis. We can assist with sample collection and overnight transfer to our lab. Our reporting times range from five working days to same day testing, depending on your requirements.

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Microbiological Testing

We perform microbiological testing to detect food borne pathogens and spoilage organisms, ensuring food safety along the supply chain, during production and in the final product. Our services range from enumeration of indicator organisms to identification of foodborne pathogens, including Listeria, E. coli, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella and others.

Our lab is ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited and is an RSA approved microbiology services provider.

We have specific accreditation to test the entire range of microbiology parameters on food supplements, including blends and extracts.

In addition to regular testing and environmental monitoring, we offer microbiological shelf life determination for a wide range of food stuffs.

We operate seven days a week and provide a sample collection service. We have extensive storage capacity at both ambient and chilled conditions.

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Food Allergen Testing

SGS’s comprehensive range of food allergen testing services help you keep your customers safe and comply with regulations. We use proven enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods to detect the presence of allergens at low levels.

We offer UKAS accredited tests for the 14 main allergens, including gluten, casein, mustard, soya, almond peanut and more.

Our allergen testing covers every stage of the food supply chain and our analytical biochemistry assay is effective for a wide range of food types, ranging from raw materials to complex foods.

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Mycotoxin Testing

Our fast, accurate reliable mycotoxin testing and analysis service allows us to identify trace amounts of mycotoxins, with detection limits as low as 0.1 µg/kg, safeguarding human and animal health and ensuring compliance with specific legislation, including:

  • Commission Recommendation 2006/576/EC (Feeds)
  • Commission Directive 2002/32/EC (Feeds) Patulin
  • Commission Regulation 1881/2006 (Foods)

We test for:

  • Aflatoxins
  • Aflatoxin B1
  • Ochratoxin A
  • Zearalenone (ZON)
  • Fumonisins
  • Trichothecenes (T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin)
  • Deoxynivalenol (DON)

We use state of the art ELISA and liquid chromatography techniques to ensure reliable, accurate results.

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Dioxins and PCB Testing

We ensure compliance with strict EU regulations for the presence of dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

Comprehensive testing is conducted in our state of the art labs using:

  • High resolution-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HR-GC/MS)
  • Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)

Our analysis is performed by a trusted partner who is accredited to ISO 17025:2017.

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Advisory Services

We offer end-to-end food and consumer product brand and reputation protection. From a one-off artwork label review to regulatory compliance advice or a bespoke Product Lifecycle Management platform, our advisory services ensure your needs are met. Tailoring services to your products and your intended markets, Horizon Scanning solutions, underpinned by our experts, provide you with the information you need when you need it.

We can also help you with product specification completion, tracking performance and identifying training needs, all of which improves your efficiency. Beyond the product specification we can generate and review non-artistic Pack Copy and conduct legal label (artwork) compliance reviews against the regulations in your intended market.

Our global network offers validation and translation services, ensuring compliant food product labels, wherever in the world you sell to. Let SGS support your journey to build trusted brands.

Why SGS?

We are the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company, with extensive experience providing solutions for the food industry. Our cost effective solutions, delivered by highly qualified experts, will help you ensure safety and quality throughout the food supply chain.

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The Importance of Food Safety Culture

We provide the food industry with testing, audit, inspection, training and certification solutions against a variety of standards to help you grow a sustainable business, mitigate risk and improve efficiency at every stage of the value chain.

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