Quality Keepers
Download the articleThe role of the laboratories is crucial to ensure the highest quality standards during product manufacturing.
In our laboratories, we analyse, assess and ensure quality from the moment we receive the raw material until the last stage in product manufacturing. This task is performed by implementing good manufacturing practices, safe work and by ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
This sector consists of four main areas: production, microbiology, sensory analysis and chromatography laboratories, which work on the strict treatment of products, ensuring compliance with the specifications of our customers.
The production laboratory team has two units located in each production plant, Industrial Plant A and Industrial Plant B. The team is comprised of 51 employees from different areas such as chemical engineering, food sciences, chemical sciences, biotechnology, and biochemistry, among others.
“Our inter-laboratory practices are key to ensure quality and reliability in our controls, identifying potential variations and improving performance standards in our sector. Our daily commitment consists in ensuring excellence in the production process”, stated Beatriz Pérez Camaño, Head of Laboratory.
Laboratory Areas
The Production Laboratory is responsible for ensuring quality from the moment we receive the raw material (lemons) until it is transformed into an industrialized product to be exported: essential oils, NFC and concentrated juices, pulp cells, dehydrated peels and other by-products.
Due to the fact that we have two independent units, we can carry out inter-laboratory analyses to compare, validate analytical values and verify results.
The Microbiology Laboratory is in charge of assessing the microbiological quality both of the products and the water used in the process, guaranteeing their innocuousness.
The Sensory Analysis Laboratory is in charge of ensuring that the success of a food product is associated to the sensory perception. The area has an interdisciplinary panel comprised of 12 people who are permanently trained to perform descriptive analyses of the products, sensory discrimination studies, and sensory profiles, among others. In addition, this unit provides support to quality control and the development of new products.
The Chromatography Laboratory is the newest in the sector and plays a key role in the identification of components and their quantification. This unit contributes to the precise analysis of the chemical composition of the products interacting with the production, quality control and development of new products area.
Articulation with the R&D Department
The relation between the Research and Development (R&D) Department and the laboratory is key for innovation since together they develop and materialize it in constant collaboration with different scientific and industrial disciplines.
In particular, the chromatography laboratory recognizes the essential components in the products under development, provides analytical methods to understand them chemically, and it is a key tool for the R&D Department.
What Are Tailor-Made Solutions?
Citrusvil grows by means of the search for continuous improvement and adapts to market demands by providing tailor-made solutions to its customers through the work of specialized professionals who develop unique applications and products.
The methodologies used by the R&D Department ensure a structured approach to create value, manage innovation and provide feedback instances with the customers.
We have specific know-how to develop new products that meet the present and future needs of our customers and the market.
We keep focusing on offering innovative solutions and top-quality products, technology investments and adaptability to new requirements as well as ongoing training to our teams.
“The R&D Department works on the development of different products and applications: oils, juices and peels, nutraceutical and functional nutrition. Through innovation management, we work with personalized and tailor-made commitment for each of our customers”, Federico Sosa, Head of the Research and Development Department.
The Research and Investigation Department designs new tailor-made products and solutions, based on our customers’ special requirements and market trends. The team has a distinguishing working capacity and uses precision technology to provide high-quality, quick services and reliable results.
Beatriz Pérez Camaño
Head of Laboratory
Federico Sosa
Head of the Research & Development Department
