How Data Analysis and a LIMS Ensure Quality and Safety in the Food and Beverage Industry

We may not realize it, but we are constantly analyzing data. In our daily lives, we make decisions by noticing patterns in our experiences, patterns tied to the conditions we live in. We make these decisions because we sense an ability to predict what will happen based on interpreting historically collected data.

In industrial settings, data must be used to make information-based decisions; however, historical data alone may not be sufficient in every case. It is also necessary to rely on systems such as a LIMS.

There are different sources of data, many of them originating from our environment, which changes rapidly as it constantly evolves. And it’s not only the environment that evolves, but also our ability to acquire new knowledge from data that becomes Big Data, using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

All kinds of data are generated all the time, and there are many different ways to collect them, but we should ask ourselves:

• What problem do I need to solve, or what question do I want to answer using the data?
• What data do I need, and how do I obtain it while ensuring its reliability?
• In what format do I need the data so it can be processed and statistically analyzed?
• How do I ensure data security, availability, and up-to-dateness?
• What is the most effective and precise way to share the new knowledge gained from processing and analyzing the data?

For the food and beverage industry, ensuring the safety, innocuity, and quality of products is paramount, with the goal of building consumer trust and increasing sales while meeting current regulatory requirements. For this reason, companies pursue management system certifications, which play an important role in guiding compliance with requirements and driving continuous improvement.

To achieve this, it is essential to collect data covering the entire production chain, in order to ensure process traceability, identify deviations, and recognize the characteristics of production. With this data, combined with research data, it becomes possible to answer questions that drive product improvement and process optimization, benefiting both the company and consumers.

The Importance of Having a LIMS in the Food Industry

A Laboratory Information Management System, or LIMS, is an excellent solution for food and beverage manufacturers to manage and optimize operations in their quality control laboratories, and therefore it helps significantly and becomes a foundational platform for ensuring product safety, innocuity, and quality.

With a LIMS, food and beverage manufacturers ensure the integrity of their data — that is, its legitimacy, confidentiality, availability, and traceability, while maintaining a format that facilitates the processing required to perform statistical analyses and generate visualizations that make it possible to understand the knowledge gained from a dataset.

With information organized, it becomes easier and more reliable to detect deviations or areas for improvement, since grouping and segregating information becomes simpler when observation needs to focus on the condition of raw materials, inputs, packaging materials, in-process products, finished products, environmental conditions, handling conditions, operating variables, storage conditions, transport conditions, shelf life, among others.

On the other hand, laboratories need to ensure the reliability of their test results through metrological assurance, staff competence, and the validation and verification of their analytical methods.

The LIMS becomes the foundational platform through which, thanks to the reliability of results obtained in the laboratory, one can trust the safety, innocuity, and quality of products, functioning as a traceable system that reveals the entire production history of each batch and makes data available to facilitate the recognition of patterns that drive continuous process improvement and resource optimization.

With a LIMS, the measurement results of different control variables — whether specific to the product or to operational characteristics — become available; with this data, statistical analyses can be performed to observe behavior over time and identify relationships between variations and manufacturing conditions, as well as identify improvement opportunities.

In some situations, consolidating data becomes complex, making it harder to communicate the knowledge gained from quality control to the organization’s various stakeholders, such as other company departments: production, purchasing, maintenance, logistics, planning, human resources, among others.

With a LIMS, food and beverage companies have a system that centralizes quality control information, ensuring that the organization’s stakeholders can access it whenever they need to, with data updated in real time, guaranteeing a single, accurate source of truth. In addition, it is possible to automate communications, report generation, notifications, and emails containing information relevant to process visibility.

Today, there are business intelligence tools such as Power BI, Tableau, and QlikSense, used to extract, transform, and load data, which is ultimately used to build dashboards, charts, and other visual elements to convey the meaning of the data. However, to use these and other digital tools, organized data is required — data that can be processed using Structured Query Language (SQL).

The Importance of Data Analysis for Food Manufacturers

In conclusion, data analysis is fundamental for the food and beverage industry to ensure the safety, innocuity, and quality of its products.

Through efficient data organization and management, companies in this sector can:

1. Ensure Traceability: A LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) makes it possible to trace the entire production chain, from raw materials to the final product, facilitating the identification of deviations and the implementation of corrective actions.

2. Detect Deviations and Improvement Opportunities: With data organized and analyzed in an integrated way, it becomes easier to identify problems, understand root causes, and implement process improvements.

3. Optimize Resources and Processes: Data analysis helps in understanding patterns and relationships between variables, enabling the optimization of resources such as raw materials, energy, labor, and logistics.

4. Ensure Result Reliability: Integrating a LIMS ensures the reliability of laboratory data, which is essential for attesting to product quality and safety.

5. Make Information Available Across the Organization: With data organized and centralized, the company’s different areas (production, purchasing, maintenance, logistics, etc.) have access to the information relevant for decision-making.

6. Use Business Intelligence Tools: The availability of organized data enables the effective use of BI tools, such as Power BI, Tableau, Actiz, and QlikSense, to generate dashboards, analyses, and visualizations that drive continuous improvement.

Therefore, adopting an integrated LIMS and effectively analyzing data are fundamental pillars for the food and beverage industry to ensure the safety, innocuity, and quality of its products, earning consumer trust and remaining competitive in the market.

About the Authors

Felippe Domingos is a chemical engineer and Co-Founder of Actiz, a company offering the most advanced LIMS in Latin America to optimize laboratory management, with a focus on efficiency and cost reduction.

With more than 200 projects across sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food, and petrochemicals, Felippe has built extensive experience implementing LIMS software. In 2020, following a request from an oil company in Colombia, he founded Actiz, a modern and affordable solution specifically designed to address the challenges faced by laboratories in Latin America.

Today, Actiz operates in 4 countries, serving segments such as food, biotechnology, and the environment. Felippe shares his insights on laboratory automation and digitalization on LinkedIn. Connect with him to learn more about the future of laboratories with LIMS.

Edder Alejandro Gutiérrez Betancur is a food engineer and data analyst with more than 12 years of experience in quality control and testing laboratory management. At Actiz, Edder serves as a Business Development Representative, supporting laboratories in implementing advanced technology solutions to optimize processes and ensure compliance with international standards such as ISO/IEC 17025.

Throughout his career, he has developed deep expertise in ISO 9001, HACCP, and PMO certifications, along with experience in information management systems including LIMS, ERP, SIP, and WMS. He stands out for his skill in data processing with SQL, spreadsheets, and BI tools, creating reports and dashboards that support decision-making and quality maintenance.

If you’re looking to modernize your laboratory with an efficient and secure LIMS, connect with Edder on LinkedIn and discover how digital transformation can positively impact quality control and compliance in the laboratory sector.