West Yorkshire Analytical Services’ qualified scientists provide a statutory service to monitor the safety, composition and quality of a wide range of food and drink to check compliance with various standards and regulations.
Areas include:
Compositional analysis
- Fats (saturates, mono-unsaturates, polyunsaturates, trans-fats)
- Carbohydrates
- Non-meat proteins (including soya and milk)
- Meat content
- Fish content
- Ice glaze on frozen products
- Added water in meat products, beer, milk and spirits
- Alcohol in beers, wines and spirits
Nutritional Analysis
- Big four and big eight analysis for nutritional labelling
- Crude fibre, AOAC fibre and Englyst Fibre (Non-starch Polysaccharides)
- Sodium
- Fats (saturates, mono-unsaturates, polyunsaturates, trans-fats)
- Wide experience in the analysis of school meals and other institutional catering
Additives
- Flavour enhancers
- Preservatives
- Colours
- Antioxidants
- Sweeteners
Consumer complaints
- Taints
- Foreign bodies
- Mould
Contamination
- Heavy metals (lead, cadmium, etc.)
- Materials absorbed from packing materials (tin, solvents,etc.)
- Smoke residues, cleaning materials and disinfectants
- Fungal toxins
- Illegal Dyes
- Sudan Dyes
- Taints
- Chrysoidine G ( Basic Orange G) in Spices
A RASSF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) alert issued mid-2008 drew attention to limited intelligence regarding potential contamination of whole star anise (Illicium verum)and Saigon cinnamon known as Vietnamese Cassia (Cinnamomum loureirii) of Vietnamese origin. Although the intelligence was related to consignments destined for the Indian market Chrysoidine has been found in at least one consignment being imported into the UK. We have a fully validated HPLC method with Diode Array Detection which will shortly be included in our scope of UKAS accreditation and can offer confirmation by LC-MS-MS. The extraction stage of the method is crucial as a non-optimised system can result in false negatives. Contact Duncan Campbell for further information.
Labelling
- Pictorial representation
- Nutrition labelling
- Misleading descriptions
- Compliance with relevant regulations
- Advice on labelling requirements
Food authenticity
- Branded drinks
- Honey analysis
- Durum wheat
- Meat species
- Fish species
Differentiation between wild, organic and other salmon.
Food quality
- Freshness
- Rancidity
- Meat quality
- Cheese analogues
- Fresh/frozen
Allergies
- Gluten
- Peanuts
- Artificial colours
Microscopy
- Purity of herbs and spices
- Milk quality
- Mould identification
- Glass identification
Milk
- Freezing point to current standard (IDF 108C)
- Fat
- Antibiotic Residues
- Somatic Cell Count (Official EU method)
- Somatic Cell Count (Official EU method)
- Phosphatase (Official EU method)
- Peroxidase
- Homogenisation
- Protein
Preservatives
- Sulphites
- Benzoates
- Sorbates
- Nitrite
Colours
- Artificial colours
- Bixin and Norbixin (E160b)
- Carminic Acid (E120)
Foreign bodies
Glass Identification
Phosphatase testing
