The future of food and drink labs How food and drink labs have adapted since COVID-19 With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the mass stock-piling of food products like chicken, flour and eggs. This had a major knock-on effect on food and drinks labs, which are integral to test products from the production line and develop new food and drink items. Here, Aleiya Lonsdale, Head of Marketing at Lab Innovations, explains the impact COVID-19 has had on food and drink labs and the technologies and processes that it has inspired. Health and safety came into the spotlight when the pandemic hit. The highly contagious nature of the virus meant that more rigorous hygiene and safety practices were required to limit transmission. In a position paper written in November 2020, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) argued that air cleaning systems in labs needed to be independently validated to ensure a COVID-secure environment. One food and drink lab, Camden BRI, developed a new test procedure to validate air and surface cleaning systems in labs that had not been replicated anywhere else in the UK. The procedure would test the air and surface activity, assessing whether SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, was inactive or removed from those areas in the facility. Though this procedure had been created to stop the spread of the virus, it could be used in the future to test for a variety of viruses to ensure hygiene at the highest level in the air and on surfaces.
had to invent new ways of carrying out
home, 24/7. This data can be transmitted
important work safely in order to maintain
through the cloud, with notifications sent
the supply chain.
to devices from anywhere in the world.
Isolation and lockdowns led to many
This technology is not just limited to
scientists having to take their work home.
temperature monitoring. It can also track
Jan Hrušák, chair of the European Strategy
variables like humidity, carbon monoxide,
Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), has said ‘We have seen huge, massive mobilisation of [the] capacities of research infastructure’ and that he expects big labs to build more remote access schemes that allow researchers to send samples into the lab from home, especially with regard to non-critical projects. This new flexibility has become attractive for some labs with suggestions that this could lead to a rise in recruitment as more staff may be required to handle samples that have been sent to them by remote researchers. Flexible working conditions also led to a rise in remote monitoring systems
Staff shortages were also a challenge at
for integral pieces of equipment in food
the start of the pandemic. At its peak,
and drink labs like cold storage units.
some members of the Food and Drink
Monitoring and maintaining these units
Federation reported over 20 per cent of
is essential to ensure product safety and
absences caused were by sickness and
meet regulatory compliance. Labs are now
isolation. That, combined with social
using new technologies like web-based
distancing in labs, added further pressure
remote monitoring systems to track
on food and drink manufacturing. Labs
conditions within cold storage units from
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water traces and power failure. By giving staff a way to monitor lab conditions, alerting them in the case of any irregularities, this technology can change the structure of the lab working force by allowing staff to work from home or focus on more mission-critical projects. It is clear that COVID-19 has had a big impact on the world of work, particularly for industries like food and drink labs that have had to overcome challenges like lockdowns and social distancing. Through trial and error, new technology and processes have emerged, time will tell if these changes become permanent. Many of these new developments will be showcased at Lab Innovations, the only exhibit in the UK for the laboratory industry, on November 3 and 4, 2021 at the NEC in Birmingham. For more information on what’s happening at Lab Innovations, visit www.lab-innovations.com
