Control Laboratory for Food and Cosmetic Quality

Introduction

Control Laboratory for Food, Health and Cosmetic products was established in 1994. This laboratory is responsible to guarantee the quality of both imported and exported goods to and from the island. This facility is accredited with the Iranian Institute of Standards and has scientific collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Objectives

  1. To inspect and control the quality of imported and exported products, in order to meet national and international standards
  2. Quality controlling of imported products to comply with compulsory standards
  3. Quality controlling of exported products to comply with compulsory standards
  4. To test and ensure that product samples comply with standards specifications in order to be granted the relevant certificates
  5. To suspend imports of low-quality products and to support domestic suppliers’ high-quality products
  6. To guarantee the quality of the products for residents and tourists information
  7. To provide the necessary information to clients, as the only scientific and reference laboratory on the island
  8. To provide training and educational services for the technical and non-technical laboratory staff
  9. To provide the exporters and importers with consultation services
  10. To conduct applied research projects focusing particularly on the scientific issues of Kish Island
  11. To recommend effective procedures in order to eliminate quality defects based on national and international standards

Capabilities

  • Inspecting and ensuring that the quality of the food, cosmetic, and health care products comply with the national and international standards.
  • Analyzing the chemical and physical qualities of products.
  • Providing advice on the selection of standards.
  • Performing microbiology testes on water, food, cosmetic, and health care samples.
  • Issuing quality control certificates for the importing and exporting origins.
  • Providing educational training for technical and on-technical staff.
  • Cooperating with supervisory organizations like Veterinary Office, Customs Office, Standard Office and other relevant industries on the island. 
  • Controlling food, cosmetics and health care products.

Tests Available

  • Ash
  • Moisture (rapid test)
  • Preservatives
  • Color additives
  • Caffeine content in soft drinks
  • Analysis (includes: water, sulfate, chloride, TDS, hardness and soil)
  • Standard nutritional labeling (includes: protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sodium and calcium, total dietary)
  • Saturated determination and characteristics of industrial products
  • Saturated determination of edible oils and its components.
  • Grain and grain products
  • Dairy and milk products
  • Meat and poultry products
  • Juices and juice concentrate products
  • Microbiology tests (includes: aerobic plate count, coli forms, e-coli, streptococcus Sp., staphylococcus Sp., clostridium Sp., yeast and mold counts)
  • Alcohol content in suspicious samples

Laboratory Equipment and Supplies

  • Gas chromatograph
  • HPLC
  • FT-IR (furrier transformer-infrared)
  • Atomic absorption spectrophotometer 
  • UV-visible spectrophotometer
  • Refractometer 
  • Polarimeter
  • Viscometer
  • Melting point testing instruments
  • Lactometer
  • Centrifuge
  • Moisture analyzers
  • Electronic balance (readability: 0.1)
  • Electrical oven
  • Rotoraporator
  • Nitrogen analyzer (Kjeldal systems)

Prospective Plans

  • To provide the laboratory with more modern equipment and facilities.
  • To implement a new laboratory as the toxicity laboratory, within the quality control laboratory.
  • To join the “supervisory laboratory network” of the Ministry of Health, and Medical Treatment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
  • To update the scientific references of the laboratory.
  • To provide the technical staff with additional educational training.
  • To expand their services though consultations and training.

The Soil Mechanics and Construction Laboratory

The Soil Mechanics and Construction Laboratory was established in 1999. This laboratory is responsible for providing a variety of standard civil engineering tests and services throughout Kish Island and beyond including nearby coastal areas on the mainland.