LIMS for food testing labs

Food products and standards in the library

The Food & Agricultural Products group covers atta and other flours, bakery products, breakfast cereals, milk and dairy products, paneer, ghee, edible oils, spices, salt, beverages, ready-to-eat foods and animal feed.

The library holds FSSAI standards for flours, breakfast cereals, bakery, whole milk powder, milk composition and adulterants, and metal contaminants, plus FSSAI microbiological standards for dairy, spices, grain and cereal products, and cooked meat and egg products. BIS standards include IS 1011 for biscuits, IS 2346 for carbonated beverages and IS 2052 for compounded cattle feed. Packaged drinking water and mineral water are covered on the water testing lab software page.

Every standard arrives as a draft for your Technical Manager to check and activate. Limits change only through dated versions, so a report issued last year still shows the limits it was checked against.

Choosing the right FSSAI limit

One FSSAI standard often sets different limits for different products. When a flour sample is registered, FSSAI 2.4 for atta, maida, suji and flours is pre-selected and the front office picks the product: atta, protein rich atta and so on, or “Other / not listed”. Only that product's limits are applied.

The method is from the FSSAI Manual of Methods of Analysis of Foods (Cereal and Cereal Products, FSSAI 03.005). The analyst types three weights, and the result and its verdict appear with no calculator. In labs that use Formula entry, 477 of the library's 602 methods calculate this way, and some results, such as SNF in milk, calculate from other results.

Microbiology with m and M 3-class plans

FSSAI microbiological standards use a 3-class sampling plan: n units are tested, up to c of them may fall between m and M, and none may exceed M. Tanush LIMS keeps all four numbers with the limit. On the review screen a plate count limit reads, for example, “Acceptable: m = 3 × 10⁴ cfu/mL (n = 5, c = 3)” and “Limit: M = 5 × 10⁴ cfu/mL (n = 5, c = 3)”.

A result between m and M shows as Within permissible † for the reviewer; above M it does not comply. The report prints m and M as their own columns, marks a result between them with †, and explains in a footnote that the unit is acceptable within the number c allowed between m and M.

Counts as they are read

Microbiology results are typed as read: a number, “<10”, TNTC, an estimated count such as “60 est” (printed “60 (est.)”), ND, or Absent once the test has a detection limit. Coliforms, E. coli, plate counts and MPN tests run across both food and water samples.

Holding times for microbiology

Micro samples can't wait. The library sets 30 hours for microbiological counts and 24 hours for micro tests on cooked foods and liquid milk, for your lab to confirm or change. From inward on, each test shows the time by which analysis must start, counted from sampling, and Home lists the tests to start first.

A sample that arrives after its holding time is flagged at inward, and the customer can agree to testing anyway or the tests are cancelled. A test started late prints ‡ on the report.

Front office for food labs

• Who drew the sample. Your own sampler, or the customer; a sample the customer brings can be marked as drawn by the customer, an official or an independent third party, and an official sample also records the seal on receipt.
• Short samples. The bottles or containers received are recorded at inward. If there is less than a method needs, the customer's agreement is recorded and those results print ◊.
• Buyer specifications. A customer's own purchase specification can be set up and offered only for that customer's samples.
• Blind analysis is on by default. Analysts see the sample code and type, never the customer, brand or supplier.
• Billing. Test packages and price lists, a printed sample receipt, and GST invoices made from approved samples.

If your lab is accredited, see how scope, ULR and deviations are handled on LIMS for NABL-accredited labs.