Genon Laboratories

Food and feed labelling and safety – a free consultancy service is offered by Genon Laboratories Ltd to help manufacturers face the challenges of complex legislation and reap the benefits of a suitable testing regime.

Food allergy alerts and product recalls occur almost daily, at great expense to manufacturers. A testing program can ensure they comply with legislation and avoid this unnecessary impact on costs and reputation.

The legislation governing food and animal feed labelling and contaminant levels is extensive and constantly changing. In addition there are ‘recommendations’ that while not legally binding, do improve the perceived quality of products and supplier integrity, and where animal feed is concerned, health of the livestock.

Keeping up to date with the regulations affecting manufacturers and certain products in their range presents a huge challenge. For large operations and where a vast product mix exists the main issue could be cross-contamination of food allergens, while for smaller organisations the cost and time involved in monitoring the legislation and ensuring compliance can be too high for the company to bear.

Recognising the importance of food and feed safety, and the difficulties faced by manufacturing companies, Genon Laboratories has set up a free consultancy service. Their in-depth knowledge of the complex legislation along with over 30 year’s scientific experience in developing immunological and genetic tests is combined to offer client companies advice and assistance in devising testing regimes specific to their needs. However complex the organisation’s production system and whatever the product mix may be, the team at Genon can assess the risks and advise on a testing program that will ensure their products satisfy internal quality measures as well as the legislation affecting them. They will furthermore identify where tests currently carried out may not be required, helping to avoid unnecessary expense.

The benefits of a well thought-out testing regime are threefold:

• Packaging can carry more information about the product within, for example food allergens, meat species and GM content. This improves how the company is viewed by consumers and allows them to make a more informed purchasing choice, whether for health, ethical or religious reasons. For example the use of ‘may contain’ labelling means the producer does not need to test for food allergens such as peanuts, however this does not help an allergic sufferer. For individuals the only way to avoid a potentially fatal reaction is to avoid foods that cannot be guaranteed allergen free, and so prevents that individual from purchasing those products. Fully informative labelling gives them the choice and certainly opens up a wider audience for manufacturers.
• It is often said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, however in the case of product recalls, whether they are due to improper labelling or the presence of a contaminant dangerous to human health, there is no disguising the negative impact on the entire company’s reputation. Notices in supermarkets, food safety websites, the manufacturer’s own website and television damage consumer confidence in making future purchases not only of the product recalled but also other items from the same producer.
• Last but not least, the above two issues have great financial impacts on manufacturers. Proper labelling can directly improve sales while product recalls cost thousands if not millions in waste and damage to reputation.

Presented with these challenges, how does a company keep abreast of the changing legislation, identify the elements that affect them, and then put measures in place to ensure they maximise the benefits and avoid recalls? Taking advantage of Genon’s free consultancy and letting their experienced team of scientists carry out the tests is a very cost-effective way to complete this task. For the lay-person, Genon will explain the technical aspects in plain English and link test results with legislation so that their significance is fully understood. Their dedication to providing exceptional customer service sets a high standard for the testing laboratory industry to rise to.

For more information on the range of tests and areas of expertise call Genon Laboratories on 01422 884287.