AsureQuality‘s Food Laboratory plays an essential role in upholding Aotearoa’s integrity as a quality food producer and exporter. A three-year investment, now underway, is future-proofing the laboratory for ongoing growth, further reinforcing NZ’s leading reputation on food safety and quality assurance. Located in Auckland, the food laboratory employs a 450-strong team and delivers around two million tests a year on food and food-related products, principally serving New Zealand’s primary sector by ensuring their products meet export requirements.
“By tests and people, I believe we are the biggest food testing laboratory in the southern hemisphere,” says Michael Hodgson, Group Service Manager – Food Testing.
“We’ve tested any kind of food you can imaging from a whole shark through to medicinal cannabis, and we test food packaging too. We also have a dedicated wine testing lab.”
In June, work started on the first stage of a major redevelopment project to separate non-lab and lab functions as well to boost testing efficiency with state-of-the-art automation technology.
Currently under construction next to the main lab is a new two-storey building (2000sqm in total) that will serve as a dedicated people hub. Linking up with the laboratory, the new hub will boost staff amenities while freeing up space in the main lab building for planning automation improvements.
“Anything that’s not testing-related is being taken out of the current lab building and put into the new people hub building, which will provide a really nice space for our staff to be in. It will include open plan offices, meeting rooms, staff cafeteria, smart training facilities, archiving space and a sample retention facility [for short-term storage of test samples ahead of disposal].”
Designed by Jasmax, the new hub is being delivered on site by lead contractor NZ Strong, with QS provided by White Associates and project engineering by Pragmatix. “All four have been amazing to work with.”
Once the hub is completed in August 2025, work will commence on the two-year lab redevelopment and fit out. The upgrade is needed to address rising demand for testing has almost doubled since 2012, mostly driven by dairy and infancy formula producers along with rising demand for tests on new alternative products.
As well as sample reception and site services, the lab has specialist chemistry and microbiology facilities. Automation improvements are already making a difference for the lab’s busy chemistry team while the microbiology team is welcoming the arrival of digital plate reader technology with automated plate sorting and retention/disposal.
There is much more automation to come in the upcoming lab redevelopment that will enable greater scalability, even faster turnaround times and ensure utmost precision in test results. For lab staff, it will mean far less time spent on repetitive, mundane tasks with spin-offs for well-being and retention. Workflows are also set to improve. “For example, the microbiology department is currently split across two wings in the current building but will be brought together as one in the redevelopment.”
Along with European suppliers, AsureQuality is working with local companies as much as possible to source the latest robotics and software needed for this exciting project.
To read from the original article visit the Business North – Volume 23 | Issue 6 | November 2024
By Kim Newth