The essential guide to food testing

The Essential Guide to Food and Beverage Testing
What is Testing?
Food and Beverage Testing is estimation of the food quality and its
safety, when compared to certain permissible limits and related
parameters.
Testing a Food or Beverage product is conducted for estimating the
presence of microbial contamination, change in the pH, sensory
evaluation, Shelf Life and the quality of the water used in the preparation.
What are the different Contaminants that can be present in the food you
make?
1. Physical
Blades, metal pieces, nails, brush hair, plastic pieces.
2. Chemical
Pesticides, Insecticides, processing chemicals.
3. Biological
Blood, skin, microorganisms like coliform, E.coli, Salmonella sp., and
similar kind.
What kind of Testing services fall under Food and Beverage Testing?
On a broader perspective, every test that helps understand the safety of
the product and signiﬁes the quality, falls under the testing process,
required for every Food Business to observe.
This includes the following:
- Food Microbial Testing
- Water Testing for Potability
- Nutritional Labelling
- Shelf Life Analysis
- Milk and Dairy Adulteration
The services that aid the above services are:
- Swab Testing
- Label Validation
- Audits
- FoSTaC [Food Safety Training and Certiﬁcation]
- Food Safety Management and Implementation Plans
1 contact@equinoxlab.com | +91 22 50647422 | www.equinoxlab.com

What are the basic segments under which the Food Industry can be
categorised?
While there are several small and big food units that form a Food Sector,
we can broadly classify the same into the following three segments:
- Food Manufacturing
- HoReCa [Hotels, Restaurants and Caterings]
- Institutes [Schools and Hospitals]
What Testing services are required for each of the above-mentioned
services?
Once you have ﬁgured out which sector you fall under, it becomes easy to
understand which tests are required for the individual sector.
NO. SERVICES MANUFACTURERS HORECA INSTITUTES
1 Food Microbial
2 Nutritional
Labelling
3 Shelf Life
4 Swab
5 Water Potability
6 Heavy Metals &
Pesticides
7 FoSTaC
8 FSMS
9 Label Validation
10 Product
Approval
Validation
11 Milk
Adulteration
This is an overview of some tests that Food Businesses need to get done and should not be considered
as the complete list.

What is the meaning and use of each Testing Service?
1. FOOD MICROBIAL - This helps understand the microbial contamination
of the food and beverage in question. These microbes are known to
cause several foodborne diseases and disorders.
PARAMETERS: 10
2. NUTRITIONAL LABELLING - This identifies the total ingredients, their
nutritional composition and the presence of allergens [if any]. NL is
mandated and should be as per the designing regulations laid down by
FSSAI [Food Safety and Standards Authority of India].
PARAMETERS: 16 [Two types]
3. SHELF LIFE ANALYSIS - Conducting this test gives the time period until
which the product shall retain its nutritive value and will be fit for
consumption. Commonly seen as ‘Expiry Date’, ‘Best Before Date’, or ‘Use
By Date’, this is essential for longer sales and to know when the product
turns into substandard quality.
PARAMETERS: 6 [Two Types]
4. SWAB - This is indirectly related to product’s safety, since the surface
and the personnel who handle food is tested for contamination. Sterile
swabs are used for the type of contamination for preventive hygiene
measures that can be taken.
PARAMETERS: 9
5. WATER POTABILITY - Particularly important and usually understated,
testing the quality of water used for drinking [IS 10500] and for
processing [IS 4251] to avoid the contamination of perfectly safe and
high quality raw / semi - processed ingredients. This ensures a
360-degree safety for the product.
PARAMETERS: 18 [Potability]
33 [Raw Water]
6. HEAVY METALS AND PESTICIDES - While this is used for food products
that claim to be ‘organic’ in nature, this is also necessary to be 100% sure
that the raw materials used are free from heavy metals and pesticides.
Their presence is proven to cause genetic disorders and growth
problems.
NOTS and Aflatoxins test is also required with this.
PARAMETERS: 9 + 149 [HM + P]
4 + 4 [N + A]

7. FoSTaC - Abbreviation for Food Safety Training and Certification, the
program aims towards streamlined and uniform training across all the
sectors of the food industry, PAN - India. This is mandated by FSSAI;
every food business must have one Food Safety Supervisor trained under
this program. If you are not trained yet, use the contact details present in
this document to register with the FoSTaC - Empanelled Training Partner.
LEVELS: 3
8. FSMS - Food Safety Management System is the complete
documentation of the Operations, Audits, Tests, Performance Metrics,
Licenses, Product Recall procedures, and more. This is a mandatory
system, essential at every premise for each food business.
9. LABEL VALIDATION - LV is the compliance process, wherein the
packaged label is verified against the standard requirements laid down by
FSSAI. This includes presence of FSSAI License number & logo, mention
of veg/non-veg logo, allergens caution, Shelf Life, size of principle
display, Nutritional Label, etc.
10. PRODUCT APPROVAL VALIDATION - PAV is essential for Food
Manufacturers who import raw materials. Whether or not the ingredients
fit into the permitted list of additives and ingredients, is checked under
this process. Following the failure, Product Approval Consultation is
essential to help food businesses comply with the FSSAI’s regulation.
11. MILK ADULTERATION - Dairy Industry is one of the most crucial, yet
most prone to contamination and spoilage. Food Manufacturers involved
with milk as the basic ingredient, need to check for any adulteration their
product might contain.
PARAMETERS: 11

The essential guide to food testing

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