Laboratory → Services

Eight service lines

Each line below runs in-house at Feeder Road. Most studies combine three or four of them into a single protocol with one set of pull points and one report.

ASLT

Accelerated shelf-life studies

Elevated-temperature storage with kinetic modelling, used to bracket a date code before the real-time trial has finished running.

Acceleration is a modelling exercise, not a measurement. We state the model, the activation energy used and the temperature range over which it holds, so a reviewer can see where the extrapolation stops being safe. For products that pass through a phase change — anything with fat crystallisation or a starch system — we will normally advise against acceleration entirely.

Storage at 30 °C, 37 °C and 45 °C with matched controls at the intended temperature
Arrhenius or Q₁₀ modelling, with the model assumptions written into the report
Indicative life returned in 15–20 working days
Used to bracket a launch date while the real-time trial continues in parallel

RTS

Real-time storage trials

Chambers held at 4 °C, 20 °C and 25 °C/60 %RH with scheduled pull points across the full declared life of the product.

This is the study a retailer will ask to see. Packs are held under a logged profile for the full declared life plus a margin, and pulled on a fixed schedule for micro, chemical and sensory assessment. Because the chamber trace is released alongside the results, an auditor can confirm that the product was held where the report says it was held.

Chambers at 4 °C, 8 °C, 20 °C and 25 °C/60 %RH
Abuse arms available at 12 °C for chilled distribution modelling
Continuous logging at five-minute intervals, released with the report
Pull points agreed in the protocol, not decided after the fact

OTR / WVTR

Oxygen & moisture permeation

Coulometric OTR and modulated-infrared WVTR on films, laminates, trays and finished packs, at controlled humidity.

A film specification quotes a barrier figure measured flat and dry. The pack you ship is neither. We measure the finished pack where the geometry allows it, because forming, sealing and the humidity gradient across the wall routinely move the real figure by a factor that matters.

Coulometric OTR to ASTM F1927 at 23 °C, 0–90 %RH
Modulated infrared WVTR to ASTM F1249
Whole-package and flat-film configurations
Reported as a rate per pack as well as per square metre

Integrity

Seal integrity & leak detection

Burst, creep, dye penetration and vacuum-decay methods to separate a genuine channel leak from a weak but sound seal.

Most seal problems are not holes. They are channels that open under the pressure differential of a chilled distribution leg, or seals that hold at 24 hours and creep apart at 200. We run static and sustained-load methods together, because passing one and failing the other is the common result.

Burst and creep to ASTM F1140
Dye penetration to ASTM F1929
Vacuum decay to ASTM F2338 for rigid formats
Seal cross-sections photographed where a failure mode is disputed

Challenge

Microbiological challenge testing

Deliberate inoculation with the organism your process is designed to control, tracked against the storage profile you actually ship under.

A durability study tells you when the product becomes unpleasant. A challenge test tells you whether the organism your process is designed to control can grow before that point. For ready-to-eat chilled foods with a life over ten days, the second question is the one that carries the legal weight.

Inoculation with the target organism at a defined, reported level
Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., E. coli and spoilage flora
Growth or no-growth determination against the storage profile
Run under containment, on product that is otherwise identical to the retail pack

Sensory

Sensory panel assessment

A trained twelve-person panel scoring appearance, odour, texture and flavour drift at each pull point, blind to the storage arm.

The panel is the part of a shelf-life study most often reduced to a single number. We release the distribution as well, because a mean acceptability of 5.5 built from a split panel means something quite different from the same mean built from agreement.

Twelve trained assessors, screened and periodically re-qualified
Blind to storage arm and to pull-point order
Scored on appearance, aroma, texture, flavour and an overall acceptability scale
Score sheets released with the report, not just the mean

Migration

Food contact migration

Overall and specific migration into food simulants under EU 10/2011 conditions, with declaration-of-compliance support.

Migration work is documentation as much as chemistry. We test to the contact conditions the product actually experiences, then set out the result in the form a declaration of compliance needs, so the file stands up when a technical manager is asked for it at short notice.

Overall migration into the four EU 10/2011 simulants
Specific migration where a substance of concern is identified
Conditions selected for the intended contact time and temperature
Support in drafting the declaration of compliance

Transit

Transit & distribution simulation

Vibration, drop and compression sequences run before the storage trial, so the pack you test is the pack that survived the lorry.

Testing a pristine pack answers a question nobody asked. Where the study allows it, we run the distribution sequence first and put the surviving packs into the chamber, so the shelf life you declare belongs to a pack that has been through a lorry.

Random vibration, drop and compression sequences to ASTM D4169
Distribution cycles selected for the route length and handling profile
Packs then enter the storage trial in their post-transit condition
Failures photographed and described, not just counted

Not sure which combination your product needs?

Describe it to the laboratory