Complete Laboratory Solutions

Microbiological Testing

Testing Services / Microbiological Testing

Our microbiological testing services covers Food Testing and Analysis, Environmental Testing and Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Testing supported by our team of highly skilled team catering for a range of national and international clients across our core sectors.

Food Testing and Analysis

Food Testing and Analysis has been one of the core competencies since 1994. Our dedicated team of highly qualified, experienced analysts provide the industry with qualitative and quantitative analysis, offering technical support as well as remedial advice to clients.

Food Testing
Microbiology Food Testing and Analysis
  • Pathogen Detection
    (Listeria, Clostridium perfringens, Staph aureus, Enterobacteriaceae, Campylobacter spp, Salmonella)
  • Food Spoilage bacteria enumeration
    (TVC’s, Yeasts and moulds, Lactic acid bacteria, Pseudomonas)
  • Shelf life testing
  • Salmonella Control Programme
  • Food Safety Programme
  • Foreign Body Identification
  • Food Poisoning Investigation Suite.
  • Improvement and investigative site visits
Food Safety Programme

Developed under copyright by CLS to support our clients in the food services area, the programme meets the microbiological criteria such as FSAI Guidance note 3 and Commission Regulation No. 2073/2005.

The above programme and its criteria can then be used to validate and verify HACCP, food safety management system including operators cleaning effectiveness.

CLS’s Food Safety Programme is performed in over 700 customer sites every year making CLS the number one leader in the ready to eat sector. We are ISO: 9001:2015 approved for sampling.  Microbiology analysis is carried out in CLS’s ISO17025 accredited testing laboratory INAB Reg. No. 108T and the results are reported directly back to the client with online results available as they are validated and full certs of analysis provided by e mail.

Our customers include deli counters, retail, serve overs, commercial and company canteens, fast food outlets and forecourts.

A typical Food Safety Programme includes:

  • Food Product Samples
  • Water Samples
  • Ice Samples
  • Personnel Hand Swabs
  • Surface Hygiene Swabs
Detergent Efficacy Testing

CLS does challenge testing to assess the effectiveness of sanitisers supplied and in use and issues a certificate of performance.

Factory / Production Hygiene

CLS offers a full range of testing and support to create a baseline of hygiene standards in food production plants. This will be customised per each client and includes surfaces, raw material, water, ice, air, personnel hygiene and cleaning effectiveness.

Water Microbiology

CLS has an extensive range of testing and sampling of waters including all qualitative and quantitative analysis including:

  • TVC’s
  • Coliforms
  • E coli
  • Enterococci
  • Cryptosporidium
  • Legionella

Food Retail & Wholesalers

Beverage

FMCG

Healthcare

Convenience Retailers

Local Authorities

Hospitality

Other Food Services

Environmental Testing

Our Environmental services are well established, and we have been successfully supplying contract sampling and analysis to public and private sector clients since 1996, in addition to fresh and saline water, soil, sludge and dust sampling.

Environmental
Areas of Sampling, Testing and Support
  • Drinking water
  • Raw and Treated Water, treatment optimisation and jar testing
  • Optimisation, Process Proving and Commissioning of water and waste water plants
  • Investigative work (Oil spills)
  • Flow & Load Surveys, Composite Sampling
  • Compliance monitoring (Licences, trade effluents, EU Regulations)
  • Process water testing
  • Lake, River and coastal monitoring (Water & Sediment)
  • Boreholes & Wells
  • Leachates
  • Environmental Baseline Studies
  • Pre-and Post-Construction monitoring including biological assessments
  • Dust Monitoring
  • Sludge and soil analysis
Range of Environmental Testing Analysis
  • Jar Testing (Settlement & DAF)
  • Major Cations and Anions
  • Heavy Metals by ICP-MS
  • Total Nitrogen, Phosphorus
  • Chloride, Sulphate, Total Hardness, Alkalinity, LIS
  • Wet Chemistry Parameters
  • UVT & UVA,
  • OFG, TSS, TDS
  • Detergent
  • PH, Turbidity, Colour, Dissolved Oxygen, Conductivity
  • TOC, DOD, COD, BOD, Orthophosphate,
  • Ammonia, DIN, TON, Nitrate & Nitrite
  • Monochloramine, Chloramination
  • THM Formation Potential
  • Suspended Solids
  • PAH speciated
  • (TPH) Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, (aliphatic/aromatic split and carbon banding)
  • EPH/DRO, PRO, BTEX, MTBE
  • Mineral Oil
  • Dust fall (Bergerhoff)
  • VOC
  • Other Organic/ Inorganic Chemistry
Environmental Microbiology

CLS has a full microbiology department supporting its environmental services with a broad selection of services including

  • Pathogen Detection
  • E-coli, Faecal  & Total Coliforms
  • Total bacterial count
  • Enterococci
  • Legionella
  • Cryptosporidium

FMCG

Healthcare

Construction

Hospitality

Local Authorities

Fisheries

Stage Agencies

Other Food Services

Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Testing

At CLS we have a full range of microbiological testing, including sampling analysts who can take samples on-site or collect samples that clients have taken. Services include clean room testing ranging from bioburden, endotoxin, and IDs to developing test methods and validation to FDA and ISO standards.

Medical & Pharmaceutical Devices
Customer Benefits
  • Testing delivered to you on your terms
  • Capacity always available to you for planning and execution
  • Depending on a company rather than your individuals, no sick time or holiday time required
    Cost-effective solution
  • Allows you to focus on manufacturing – your value proposition not testing that’s ours
  • Access to expediate results
  • We manage the compliance of your testing and we host the audits
  • We can manage your analyst recruitment screening, technical training, and succession planning and backfilling – no downtime.
Routine Microbiological Testing
  • Bioburden analysis
  • Microscopic ID’s in supporting product and clean-room monitoring
  • A Range of Bacteria identifications available, biochemical and Omnilog
  • Endotoxin Testing (LAL), both gel clot and chromogenic methods available
  • Preservative Efficacy Testing (PE Testing)
  • Absence of specific organisms
  • Media fill

Get in touch

Contact our Microbiological Testing department for a consultation on your requirements:

+353 (0) 91 574 355