Residue & Contaminant Testing

A wide range of tests are available to detect and quantify presence of residues and contaminants in your products.

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Pesticides
Histamine
Hormones
Antimicrobial Residues

Pesticides

Extensive legislation governs the maximum acceptable levels of over 150 pesticides covering the food groups: fruit, nuts, vegetables, pulses, cereals, oilseeds, potatoes, tea, dried hops, spices and products of animal origin.

Genon Laboratories is able to determine the level of a wide range of pesticide residues to ensure they are in compliance with the frequently changing legislation. Please contact us for a full list of qualitative pesticide tests.

For more information on the use of pesticides and how they impact on food safety and legislation visit the Pesticide Safety Directorate website. Spreadsheet listing current maximum residue levels (MRLs): MRL_Spreadsheet.xls.
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Histamine

When present at high levels histamine can cause nausea, vomiting, cramps, burning sensation in mouth, itching, uticaria, facial swelling and intense headache.

Histamine is a biogenic amine that is produced post mortem in fish muscle but can also result from the fermentation processes involved in production of foods such as cheese, yoghurt, alcoholic beverages, sauerkraut and meat and meat products.

The EU has set a maximum level of histamine in bivalve shellfish and fishery products (see Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) Hygiene Regulations 1998) of 200ppm (lower where the level is the mean result of a number of samples).

Using ELISA technology we are able to provide a quantitative test of histamine in food to a detection of 0.1-100ppm.
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Hormones

At Genon we use an ELISA screening technique to facilitate the detection of a wide variety of growth promoting compounds. Please contact us for a full list of hormones that we can detect.
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Antimicrobial Residues

Widespread in the care of livestock, antibiotics used to treat animals can leave residues which enter the human and animal foodchain. The effect on humans of antimicrobial residues is unknown, however many believe them to be potentially life-threatening causing symptoms such as respiratory failure, anaphylactic shock and cancer. While this is unproven, many companies are taking the precautionary route and withdrawing the use of antibiotics - this is particularly important where organic produce is concerned.

At Genon Laboratories we are able to detect antimicrobial substances in meat, fish, eggs, kidney and honey.
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