What are the key elements of a LIMS for food and beverage testing?

FDA Food Safety & Applied Nutrition Lab (3975) (7944688650).jpg

Title: What are the key elements of a LIMS for food and beverage testing?

Author for citation: Shawn E. Douglas

License for content: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Publication date: September 2022

Introduction

A food and beverage laboratory may analyze anything from ingredients and additives to finalized food and beverage products, and many things in between. The types of analyses associated with these and other substrates and matrices can be equally diverse, depending on the role the food and beverage laboratory is playing in the overall larger framework of the industry. As has been noted in other work, the lab work of the research and development (R&D) role, for example, may look different than that of the food and beverage lab conducting activities in the pre-manufacturing/manufacturing role and the post-production regulation and security role.^[1]

Among all these activities is the driving goal of better ensuring a safer, more high-quality food and beverage product for consumers. This goal is furthered by the industry's past lessons and regulatory considerations that were made as a result of those lessons.^[2] However, these regulatory requirements place an additional burden on labs trying to meet this common goal, as well as their own internal goals towards quality and excellence. This broad array of analytical techniques and set of regulatory considerations means such labs will continue to turn to informatics solutions like the laboratory information management system (LIMS) and other food safety software, in turn requiring those information management solutions meet the unique needs of their lab.

This brief topical article will examine the typical food and beverage lab's operations and workload, and suggest a base set of LIMS functionality (i.e., system requirements) that is critical to fulfilling the information management and workflow requirements of this lab type. Additional unique requirements will also be briefly discussed.

Note: Any citation leading to a software vendor's site is not to be considered a recommendation for that vendor. The citation should however still stand as a representational example of what vendors are implementing in their systems.

Food and beverage laboratory workflow, workload, and information management

Food traceability market: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/589558926/food-traceability-market-to-reach-usd-9-75-billion-by-2028-food-traceability-industry-striking-cagr-of-10-2

Little information can be found as to the percentage of food and beverage laboratories using a LIMS in their workflow. Several surveys from 2020, however, hint that LIMS are important to these types of labs. A survey of 135 professionals—nine percent of them from the food and beverage industry—from laboratory consultancy Astrix Technology found that more than 77 percent of respondents had at least one LIMS implemented in their organization. A separate survey from Lab Manager about analytical instrument use among readers found that more than 16 percent of them were using instruments for food and beverage analysis. Combined, these surveys suggest that the food and beverage industry is not trivially represented among labs. By extension—and particularly given the importance of integrating instrumentation and their produced data in such an environment—a LIMS or other informatics solution appears to be increasingly critical to eliminating manual processes, improving sample management, increasing productivity, and improving regulatory conformance.

Base LIMS requirements

Given the above, it's clear LIMS adoption and use must continue in crime labs. But a generic LIMS won't do; it's imperative the lab find a solution that meets all or most its workflow requirements. This more often than not requires a configurable solution that enables trained users to quickly make the changes they need, if those changes make sense within the overall data structure of the LIMS.

What follows is a list of system functionality important to most any food and beverage laboratory, with a majority of that functionality found in many vendor software solutions.

LIMS vs. food safety software: https://corvium.com/what-is-a-food-intelligence-platform-lims-vs-food-safety-software/ and https://www.foodlogiq.com/solutions/safety-and-quality/ and https://safetychain.com/food-safety-software/ and https://agtech.folio3.com/food-safety-software/ and https://www.fooddocs.com/

Integrated informatics for food quality and safety: https://foodsafetytech.com/feature_article/integrated-informatics-optimizing-food-quality-and-safety-by-building-regulatory-compliance-into-the-supply-chain/

Digital Transformation of Global Food Security: https://foodsafetytech.com/feature_article/the-digital-transformation-of-global-food-security/

LIMS and ISO/IEC 17025 audit for food testing labs: https://foodsafetytech.com/column/is-your-food-testing-lab-prepping-for-an-iso-iec-17025-audit/ and https://foodsafetytech.com/feature_article/how-lims-facilitates-iso-17025-certification-in-food-testing-labs/

LIMS and food safety: https://foodsafetytech.com/feature_article/how-advanced-lims-brings-control-consistency-and-compliance-to-food-safety/

Supply chain transparency and traceability: https://foodsafetytech.com/column/how-digital-solutions-support-supply-chain-transparency-and-traceability/

LIMS and FDA inspections: https://foodsafetytech.com/column/using-lims-get-shape-fdas-visit/

FSMA and LIMS: https://foodsafetytech.com/feature_article/traceability-leveraging-automation-to-satisfy-fsma-requirements/

LIMS in beverage industry: https://web.archive.org/web/20171009015829/https://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/lims-benefits-beverage-sector/

LIMS and food safety testing: https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/abs/2021/68/e3sconf_netid21_03052/e3sconf_netid21_03052.html

LIMS and agriculture genotyping workflows: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16914063/

Data management systems in the food industry: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-0311-5_3

Manufacturing execution system in food and beverage: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0260877420300315

LIMS and food processing factories (2004): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0260877404000846

Test, sample and case management

Sample, property and evidence log-in and management, with support for unique IDs
Support for pre-logging of death and evidence data before physical materials arrive
Body reception, location, and disposition support
Barcode and RFID support
End-to-end sample, body, property, and evidence tracking
Custom and industry-specific test and method management, including for breath alcohol and sexual assault testing
Test, instrument, subpoena, and other event scheduling
Test requesting
Configurable screens and data fields
Analytical tools, including data visualization, statistical analysis, and data mining tools
Data import and export
Robust query tools
Document and image management
Workflow management
Case management, including case assignment, reassignment, and prioritization, with support for unique and third-party IDs:
- Story-related entry for cases
- Geolocation capture and support
- Mass casualty event support
- Cluster and crime scene mapping tools
- Mobile and offline data entry support for remote work
- Dashboard view of all pertinent information for a case, including criminal case status
- Dashboard or other view showing case and test assignment, status, and backlog

Quality, security and compliance

Quality assurance / quality control mechanisms
Standardized terminology via built-in dictionaries and medical classification codes like ICD
National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) and International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IAC&ME) accreditation support
Results review and approval
User qualification, performance, and training management
Audit trails and chain of custody support
Configurable and granular role-based security
Configurable system access and use (log-in requirements, account usage rules, account locking, etc.)
Electronic signature support
Data encryption and secure communication protocols
Archiving and retention of case and other data and information
Configurable data backups
Status updates and alerts

Operations management and reporting

Customizable rich-text reporting, with multiple supported output formats
Custom and industry-specific forms, including body release, autopsy authorization, media release, cremation authorization, subpoena, etc.
Support for state-specific death certificates
Industry-compliant labeling
Email integration
Instrument interfacing and data management
Instrument calibration and maintenance tracking
Inventory and reagent management
Third-party software and database interfacing
Integrated (or online) system help
Hour, mileage, and expense tracking
Turnaround time calculation

Specialty LIMS requirements

As noted previously, the DOJ points out many disciplines and sub-disciplines that are used in and near the forensics laboratory. It is beyond the scope of this article to address the system functionality for each. However, an attempt has been made to cover the most important sub-disciplines associated with forensics and medical examiners labs in regards to LIMS functionality.