Scientists are offering what they describe as a “get-out-of-jail-free card” to the fresh produce industry with the launch of a next-day pesticide residue testing service.
Steve Brewer, business development manager at Central Science Laboratories, said with the ever-increasing focus on food safety, fast and accurate results are vital for the industry.
“More often than not, companies will only need a next-day service when something has gone wrong. They won’t want to wait 10 days for the results and we’re offering something the industry has been begging for, for a long time.”
Samples sent into CSL by 11am will be processed and the results made available before end of play the following day, said Brewer.
The service will not be cheap, however, with prices at a premium of around 60 per cent higher than standard testing costs.
But Brewer said it is a fair price for peace of mind. “It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card for the industry. If you look at what happened with something like Sudan 1, people don’t want to wait for their results, they want the answer tomorrow and they’ll pay 300 per cent more for that. We’re keeping the price sensible.”
He said many of CSL’s competitors have moved to five-day services. “But that’s not good enough, due to the perishable nature of fruit and veg, it’s inadequate, that’s why we decided to go the whole hog and offer next day service. CSL has the spare capacity and resources to be able to process the samples quickly and effectively.”
Demand for the service was identified by listening to the industry, he said. “We discovered they want two things; to get results quickly; and some kind of Star Trek type device to do analysis in the fields.
“While the second might not be possible just yet, it shows that we’re aware of the needs of the industry and ready to respond when the technology allows us to do so.”
The scheme is due to launch in mid-April and covers a wide range of produce, ranging from apples to bananas and peppers to potatoes, although Brewer said CSL is unable to offer the next-day testing on fatty products such as avocados and nuts.
The service offers the choice of up to seven different types of testing, from multi-residue GC/MS screening to a Thioether OP suite, which gives CSL the overall ability to test for up to 170 different types of pesticide residues.
Brewer said customers book their samples through a website, which gives them an immediate cost quote, and the results are made available to clients through a secure web-portal.
