Pinay chemist opens world-class testing lab

A world-class testing laboratory has been set up to make sure that Filipinos and the rest of the world get only high quality food, medicine both for pharmaceutical and veterinary purposes, animal feeds, cosmetics, and water, among others.

Qualibet Testing Services has been accredited by the Department of Health’s Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD), the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Industry, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards, among others, to conduct content analysis tests on a wide range of products, ensuring compliance with product standards, production of defect-free products as well as products that are safe to use and consume, or contain the right amount of nutrients.

Qualibet is also the first company in the Philippines to comply with a government requirement for all manufacturers of veterinary medicines and animal feeds to maintain entirely separate operations for laboratory testing facilities that offer their services to the public to ensure independence and integrity of the testing results for their own products, company president and chief executive officer Pinky Tobiano said in an interview.

Tobiano’s Progressive Laboratories since 1996 was engaged in quality toll manufacturing of veterinary medicines as well as providing testing laboratory services to the public and contract toll packaging of disinfectants, feed premixes, pharmaceutical medicines, among others as an integrated business until it decided to recently to establish a new company (Qualibet) and separate facilities and building devoted solely to conducting laboratory tests for the public. Qualibet’s new P45-million laboratory was just inaugurated.

"I want to prove that Filipino chemists and scientists can be world-class. I also decided to go ahead of the pack and separate our manufacturing and quality testing facilities to remove biases that result from conducting tests for your own products in your own backyard," Tobiano explained.

Genevieve Leonardo, quality control manager for Qualibet, noted that their laboratory conducts microbiological analysis of bacterial count, E. Coli, salmonella, fecal coliform, among others; high pressure liquid chromatography tests for Vitamin A, B, D3, and Vitamin E, and other active ingredients in medicine; proximate analysis and other tests for the presence of aflatoxin (cancer-causing substance in food stored improperly), crude fat, crude protein, crude fiber, among a host of other tests and content.

Government agencies, private institutions, and even individuals bring their products for testing. For instance, a certificate of analysis is required by the Bureau of Animal Industry prior to the issuance of import and export permits for animal feeds. Testing of feeds is also a requirement for accreditation of feeds manufacturers and renewal of licenses.

Drinking water as well as water used in the manufacture of food is also brought for testing of quality to ensure that they are safe. Condominium management officials regularly have their drinking water tested against the presence of salmonella, E. Coli to make sure that the water their residents are drinking is potable.

Pizza Hut, among other well-known food manufacturers, bring samples of the water that they will use in the manufacturing process to ensure that the water is safe.

Exporters of mangoes, bananas, and other food products, including fish, and even cutflowers are likewise being tested for the presence of just the right amount of pesticide residue levels to meet the maximum allowable levels set by the importing country.

According to Tobiano, who is a chemist, makers of virgin coconut oil also have their products analyze for free fatty acid content so that the levels that they print in their nutrient labels are accurate.

And because of a law requiring nutrition labeling, more and more food manufacturers are trooping to Qualibet to have their products tested for the right amount of crude protein (in the case of fish sauce or patis), Vitamin A (for catsup, instant noodles, and bread), and other vitamins and minerals which they include in their products. "Any nutrition fact, we can have it tested," Tobiano emphasized. Qualibet is also testing cosmetics for the right amount of whitening ingredients.

As part of their monitoring, BFAD and the Bureau of Product Standards whose capabilities for quality testing are limited now accept third-party analysis certifications only from accredited laboratories like Qualibet for the registration of products, renewal of licenses, and to ensure compliance with food fortification regulations and nutrition labeling laws.

The list goes on and on as more and more products are brought for testing, both as part of compliance with regulations and as part of good housekeeping and responsible manufacturing. Even those who sell packed food for South Beach dieters have their food tested to ensure that they contain the right amount of carbohydrates.

Tobiano said she only did her part to make sure that Filipinos are confident that what they see in the labels is what they get.