Agilent to open analytical sciences lab in Singapore
The Temasek Polytechnic-Agilent Partner Lab facility is in the School of Applied Sciences in Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore.
The Lab is expecting 50% of its business to come from the food industry.
It will be able to provide methodologies to detect, screen, identify and quantify chemicals in ingredients and products at various stages of the chain – from product innovation to quality control, pesticides, toxins, or adulterants screening and identification to product authentication.
Technology available
Agilent will offer the bio-analytical technologies and resources from Temasek Polytechnic will help businesses that develop, manufacture or distribute traditional Chinese medicine and food products.
Technologies used in the lab include modern mass spectrometry, chromatography, atomic and molecular spectroscopy and PCR techniques.
The lab is part of the Agilent Partner Labs network in the company’s South Asia-Pacific and Korea region.
Agilent Partner Labs program is designed to bring specialists from laboratories around the world together with their technologies in the chromatography, mass spectrometry and spectroscopy areas.
“When Agilent and Temasek Polytechnic starting collaborating together, it took about a year before this idea of a Partner Lab came to fruition. We marked the collaborating with the official opening of the new Agilent Partner Lab on Tuesday, 23 July.
“We find that Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Applied Science has strong ties with the local business communities," said Tan Mei Mei, regional business manager, South Asia- Pacific region, chemical analysis group, Agilent.
“As such, we believe that SMEs that are in the development or distribution of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and food products will want to seek the Lab’s help to conduct tests to for product innovation, quality control, trace substance screening and identification, and product authentication,” she told FoodQualityNews.com.
Lab expertise
Temasek Polytechnic will have access to the latest technologies from Agilent, maintain know-how in instrumentation skill-sets, and develop applications that customers need.
“SMEs will benefit from the lab’s expertise in analytical sciences. These SMEs can utilise the facility to conduct their testing and manufacturing of products in a controlled and safe environment,” Dr Lee Chee Wee, director, School of Applied Science, Temasek Polytechnic told this publication.
“This will help SMEs, in particular those that develop, manufacture or distribute food, TCM and health supplement products.
“Quality and safety control and the validation of origin are critical in the production of food and its distribution, and are of primary concern to food suppliers, manufacturers, and regulatory agencies.”
