Automated analysis high on the agenda at ArabLab

At this year’s ArabLab it was very clear that food and dairy producers as well as testing laboratories are looking towards a future that relies on intelligent, automated and sustainable analysis methods.

We talked to many visitors about the current challenges facing the food and dairy industry today and about the latest technologies, movements and trends that are gaining a lot of interest at the moment. Overall, we experienced a huge focus on innovative technologies such as in-line and on-line process control, process automation, Industry 4.0 and of course sustainability which has been a buzz word across the industry for quite some time.

Our team of experts was busy discussing the latest analytical developments offering new ways to meet quality standards more consistently and discussing new ways of bringing process control into the future.

One of our booth visitors, Engineer, Sobin K. Sunny from Labmed Advance, United Arab Emirates, confirms that many visitors at the exhibition are looking for new instruments with new technology and faster analysis. “Most producers are focusing on this because they need to reduce analysis time. That is the main focus. At this time, most distributors are introducing new instruments with good quality and less time for analysis,” he explains.

We also spoke with Executive Manager, Hazem Olayan from Restech, Saudi Arabia, who identified 3 types of visitors at ArabLab: Visitors with an industrial background, like a quality control lab in a factory or similar, government bodies who are responsible for checking the quality of local and imported food quality, and reference labs, including both commercial labs and labs who are doing analysis for public and other government departments.

Hazem Olayan also mentions the needs of government departments who are responsible for food quality. “They are looking for instruments that can measure quality as well as parameters related to public health and shelf life,” he explains. For reference labs, there is a lot of focus on throughput and more parameters enabling detection of different sample types, he explains. “Because every day they are receiving different samples. So, they don’t know what the next sample might be and what parameters they are looking for, so they are searching for instruments that can help them analyze more samples and more parameters,” he adds.

As we move towards Industry 4.0, more and more producers are looking towards automated process control as the key to secure an efficient and prof­itable production flow. Hazem Olayan confirms that automation is high on the agenda for many producers. If they can find an instrument that can do all parameters in one instrument, they will love it. And of course, they are looking for a least cost per sample.

In this context, the ProcesScan 2 online FTIR solution gained a lot of interest at the exhibition. Offering reliable, real-time data about product composition every 10 seconds, combined with subsequent control, ProcesScan 2 enables producers to reduce variation between batches considerably, bringing production even closer to target values.

COO, Fatima Javed from PakFil Technologies, Pakistan was also very interested in the recent development of automated bench top solutions such as Kjeltec™ 9 and automated process analysis solutions such ProcesScan™ 2 and ProFoss™ 2, bringing new value for producers faced with a lack of human resources and increased competition.

“Q&A Managers are changing responsibility. Instead of doing quality control on incoming products and raw material they are doing quality control on the in-line system. This enables them to get closer to targets,” she explains. “It's a way for the producers to obtain a larger market share. But it is important who you partner with. A potential partner needs to offer a good experience,” she concludes.