Laboratory Activities

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The current activities of CEPC Laboratory & Technical Division can be broadly classified into

  • Analytical Services for food and processed food, drinking water, water used for food processing, fish, vegetables, ayurvedic drugs, etc.
  • Basic and applied research on cashew processing, product diversification, development of technical know how.
  • Technical Consultancy – cashew processing, implementation of ISO 22000, HACCP, training on GMP, GLP, etc.

Products Tested

The laboratory has facilities to test food, drink and drug products under the following broad categories:

1.         Food and Agricultural products

  • Cashew kernels
  • Cashewnut shell liquid
  • Cashew testa
  • Cashew apples
  • Cashew shells
  • Herbs, Spices and condiments
  • Fish and Sea foods
  • Milk and Dairy products
  • Honey and honey products
  • Bakery and confectionary products
  • Meat and Meat products
  • Beverages (Alcoholic /Non alcoholic)
  • Fruits and Vegetables
  • Cereals and pulses

2.         Water

  • Packaged Drinking Water other than natural mineral water
  • Drinking water
  • Water for swimming pool
  • Water for processed food industry
  • Ground water /Surface water

3.         Waste water and Solid waste

 

Types of tests carried out

  • Tests for physical, chemical and microbiological parameters.
  • Tests for detecting ppb levels of micro-contaminants like pesticide residues, mycotoxins, biotoxins, fumigants, polychloro biphenyls, pentacholoro phenols, hydrocarbons, bacterial toxins, enzymes, heavy metals, chemicals, drug residues and aflatoxins.
  • Tests prescribed by Agmark, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA), Codex Alimentarius Commission, United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA), European Union (EU) and the like.
  • Product-specific tests like rancidity in cashews; piperine in pepper; capsacin in chillies; curcumin in turmeric; volatile oils in various spices.
  • Tests for organoleptic properties and nutritive values.
  • Potability tests for drinking water.

The laboratory also helped the cashew processors in designing their modernisation programmes and also improving their packaging systems. For this the laboratory has prepared project reports for many of the units which served as a guideline in fixing the norms of modernisation and packaging schemes.

The laboratory served as a Consultant in providing ISO 9000 based Quality Management Systems in 9 leading cashew units. The lab also helped some of them to acquire HACCP certificate. The laboratory gave training to jobless graduates in chemistry and microbiology in food analysis, who are now serving in a variety of food units inside and outside India.