September 2, 2010

Nutrisys - Centre for Animal Nutrition, the dedicated animal nutrition laboratory at Avitech Nutrition Pvt. Ltd. recently participated in the prestigious LGC Standards Proficiency Testing under the Animal Feed segment (AFPS).

LGC Standards is a division of LGC, a global leader in proficiency testing services to the food, pharmaceutical, beverages and environmental sectors.

The scheme involves distribution of test samples from LGC Standards at regular intervals which are analysed at Nutrisys for pre defined analytes and the results are sent back for statistical analysis and adherence to clearly defined benchmarks in accordance with international guide ISO/IEC 43-1 and ILAC G13.

LGC Standards is a United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited international provider of Proficiency Testing (PT) services to laboratories undertaking chemical, microbiological and physical measurements including trials. It exports to laboratories in over 130 countries world-wide and the customer base includes government agencies, major international food manufacturers, research organisations and public laboratories of international repute.

Accreditation bodies strongly recommend that laboratories participate in appropriate PT schemes as they are the only quality tool which can impact the whole quality system. PT is a truly independent measure of laboratory performance and anonymously compares performance with peer laboratories. It allows the laboratory to compare and contrast the performance of analytical methods and can assist in the validation of new methods. PT is defined in ISO/IEC 43- 1 as the use of inter- laboratory comparisons to determine the performance of individual laboratories for specific tests or measurements and to monitor laboratories' continuing performance.

Participation in PT is quality assurance initiative from Nutrisys assimilated in its comprehensive quality assurance programme as a step toward enhanced customer delight. The analytes used for the Animal Feed Proficiency testing scheme (AFPS)  are moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, ash insoluble in hydrochloric acid, sugars, crude fibre, starch, acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and pepsin protein digestibility (PPD).

The aim behind participation in PT, as articulated by Mahadev V.Koushik, Vice President - Sales and Marketing, is "to develop Nutrisys into a world class laboratory for providing accurate and timely service to the animal feed industry, both within as well as outside the country."