Prince Edward Island’s BioFoodTech has been recognized by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) by recently obtaining re-accreditation for its food safety analysis services says Minister of Economic Development and Tourism Heath MacDonald.
“BioFoodTech provides food safety analysis services to Prince Edward Island’s seafood and agrifood processing industry. It is an essential resource to the industry and provides them with the Certificates of Analysis that they need to export safe product internationally and to other provinces in Canada,” said Minister MacDonald. “BioFoodTech achieves the highest international standard through this accreditation and continues to achieve re-accreditation uninterrupted since 2000.”
The accreditation process involves visits by SCC’s technical experts every two years who examine the lab’s technical competence in every test that is on its Scope of Accreditation. SCC audits the quality system to ensure that internationally-recognized procedures are followed precisely, that results are accurate and that complete records are kept. SCC also examines the results from the many Proficiency Programs in which BioFoodTech participates. These Programs provide BioFoodTech with test samples that contain contaminants known to the Proficiency Organization but unknown to BioFoodTech. The laboratory has to identify the type and number of contaminants in the samples and report this information to the Proficiency Organization and SCC.
The Scope of Accreditation includes 18 different analyses for microorganisms such as Listeria, Salmonella, coliforms, E. coli O157:H7 and others (see http://palcan.scc.ca/specs/pdf/163_e.pdf)
BioFoodTech is owned by the Province of Prince Edward Island and operates as a subsidiary company of Innovation PEI. As well as providing food safety analysis services for the food industry and bioscience sector, BioFoodTech has four pilot plants and laboratories that provide new product and process development support. It operates on contract to industry clients mostly in PEI but also obtains export revenue through contracts for clients regionally and nationally.
“Prince Edward Island seafood and agri-food processors rely on BioFoodTech to support their food safety programs and to provide Certificates of Analysis for export,” said Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Alan MacIsaac. “Accreditation provides third-party endorsement of the highest level of competence in the operation of the laboratory on behalf of the Government of PEI.”
“We value the accredited analysis that BioFoodTech provides for Beach Point Processing Company,” says Operations Manager Pam Perrot. “This is important to us as it provides Certificates of Analysis to Beach Point for shipping our Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified Seamazz® range of frozen wild-caught North Atlantic lobster products to our customers around the world.”
“BioFoodTech’s accredited laboratory provides important analysis for Atlantic Beef Products Inc.”, says Russ Mallard, President. “BioFoodTech provides us with Certificates of Analysis that demonstrate the quality and safety of our products and enable us to ship product to our customers across Canada.”
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