AsureQuality has again been awarded a three-year contract with the newly branded Ministry for Primary Industry (MPI), for organic chemical residue testing in red meat, honey, farmed fish and dairy products.
AsureQuality’s world class contaminants testing laboratory, based in Waiwhetu, near Wellington will put to use its fleet of six LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography tandem mass spectroscopy) instruments, including two ABSciex 5500 instruments, imported from Singapore (the first and third of only four of this type of instrument in New Zealand), along with a fleet of 12 GC-MS/MS (gas chromatography tandem mass spectroscopy) and GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectroscopy) instruments to service the Ministry’s requirements.
AsureQuality has years of experience working with these instruments for all types of analysis. In addition, the Waiwhetu-based laboratory, which employs over 95 scientists, also houses the only three commercial HRMS (high resolution mass spectroscopy) instruments to be found in New Zealand. These instruments allow the detection of extremely low levels of dioxins, PCBs and other chemical contaminants of concern in the environment.
According to Dr David Stirling, technical manager for AsureQuality’s Wellington Laboratory, its fleet of HRMS instruments allows the detection of persistent organic pollutants down to part per quadrillion levels in food or environmental samples. “That’s the equivalent of being able to find one second in 30,000 years, so readers can rest assured that the food we export and eat is compliant with regulations.”
AsureQuality’s pesticide residue testing capability has increased tenfold in the past five years. In addition to testing work for customers and regulatory bodies here in New Zealand, the laboratory also has many international customers from Australia to Ireland, Japan, China and Singapore.
Dr Alan Stanley, business manager for AsureQuality’s Wellington laboratory says AsureQuality’s laboratory operations offer a truly international coverage, with facilities based in Auckland, Christchurch, Singapore and Melbourne.
“Our food testing, environmental testing, seed testing, animal export serology testing, and plant health and entomology laboratories are centered in New Zealand, but our scope of services reaches to Australia, Singapore and beyond. We employ over 450 laboratory staff and scientists, the majority having a tertiary science degree and have over 20 PhD scientists working for us.”
Taking into account AsureQuality’s Food Auditing business, On-Farm Services business and biosecurity expertise, AsureQuality is the largest provider of food safety and biosecurity services in the southern hemisphere.
