Food Safety Testing
Food safety is a cornerstone of public health, and analytical laboratories play a vital role in safeguarding our food supply by detecting harmful contaminants, verifying nutritional content, and ensuring regulatory compliance. As food chains grow more complex and the demand for high-throughput, accurate testing increases, modern laboratories face mounting pressure to deliver reliable results faster and more efficiently. To meet these challenges, many labs are turning to automated solutions—particularly the GERSTEL MultiPurpose Sampler (MPS) and the LCTech FREESTYLE SPE systems—to streamline sample preparation and analysis workflows.
The GERSTEL MPS: Automated Sample Preparation
The GERSTEL MPS is a highly flexible, robotic sample preparation platform
designed to handle a wide range of analytical tasks, including solid phase microextraction (SPME), thermal desorption, derivatization, and liquid/liquid extraction. Its modular design allows it to be tailored for specific applications such as pesticide residue analysis, flavor profiling, and mycotoxin detection. By automating labor-intensive steps, the MPS not only increases throughput and consistency but also minimizes human error, ensuring more accurate and reproducible results. This is especially important in food safety, where trace-level detection of contaminants like acrylamide, phthalates, or persistent organic pollutants is critical.
LCTech FREESTYLE SPE System: Automated Solid Phase Extraction
Complementing the GERSTEL MPS, the LCTech FREESTYLE SPE system offers fully automated solid-phase extraction (SPE) for the cleanup of complex food matrices such as milk, honey, fish, or meat. The FREESTYLE platform is compatible with a range of application-specific modules, including those for pesticides, PFAS, and veterinary drug residues. Its precise handling of SPE cartridges and elimination of manual intervention enable laboratories to run unattended sample preparation around the clock. This improves laboratory productivity while maintaining high standards of analytical integrity, particularly for regulated methods under ISO, EPA, or EU guidelines.
Conclusion
Together, the GERSTEL MPS and LCTech FREESTYLE SPE systems represent a powerful combination for food safety laboratories. Their automation capabilities not only reduce the workload of analysts but also ensure traceability, reproducibility, and compliance—key pillars in the effort to protect public health. By investing in such cutting-edge automation technologies, analytical labs are better equipped to respond to food safety threats quickly, efficiently, and with uncompromised precision.
Learn more about GERSTEL and LCTech applications for Food Safety:
