Neotron’s Analytical R&D Division
The main tasks of the R&D Division at Neotron laboratory is to develop new analytical methods to detect and quantify compounds, optimise existing methods to reduce costs, save time, and manage the tailor-made project for specific customer needs.
New analytical methods
Every year, there are several alerts about food safety, regulations, and claims based on new ingredients. In all these cases, stakeholders that operate in the food chain need to test products to verify the absence or presence of specific compounds and compliance with product specifications. We support clients thanks to our existing range of testing methods, but in case it’s required, we are also capable of rapidly developing new methods.
Optimisation of existing methods
The competition in the food testing field is getting more vital; the use of new technologies has to be combined with a continuous revision and improvement of existing methods in order to optimise analytical processes and exploit the full potential of new technologies. In the R&D department, old methods used for routine tests are revamped to increase lab efficiency and reliability.
Tailor-made projects
An essential activity carried out by the R&D team is also the management of projects for customers with specific analytical needs, e.g., identify and characterise impurities, developing a method to test specific product formulation, and comparing the performance of two different analytical processes methods.
The main steps to develop an analytical method that can detect and quantify new compounds are:
- Clearly define the purpose of the method: what do I have to test? In what kind of product? What is the content of the tested molecule in the product? What is the expected sample turnover to analyse? Etc.
- Verify if published analytical methods (officials or scientific publications) and analytical standards (pure compound) are available.
- Using available methods (published) and our know-how decide the analytical technique (GC, LC or others) to be used and define the analytical protocol
- Perform preliminary tests to verify method suitability and then carry on the method validation to test method performances like linearity, repeatability, accuracy, uncertainty etc.
To request analysis, or to learn more about the services of the R&D division of Neotron, please do not hesitate to contact the Neotron team for further information at: https://www.neotron.it/en/contacts.