GENERAL LABORATORY MANUAL

The need for general laboratory manual on food, water and drug analysis textbook cannot be over emphasis since life depends on food, water and drugs.

This manual contains test procedures compiled from approve standard regulatory bodies such as; Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), International Standard (IS), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Food Safety Standard Authorities India (FSSAI), United state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), Codex Alumeterium Commission (CAC), British Pharmacopeia (BP), International Pharmacopeia (IP), United State Pharmacopeia (USP), India Standard Institute (ISI) etc.

The manual provide guide on how to carryout both physical chemical and microbial analysis on food, water, fruit juice/flavor drink, flour, oil, and drugs.

The test procedure in this reference standard manual are meant to guide on how to assess quality of products and to check presence of substance that has been banned by food safety regulatory bodies. Banned substance such as saccharine, potassium bromated melamine in milk powder, tetrazine yellow colourant etc.

This manual will be very useful to the following persons:

1.      Those who are having challenges on how to prepared laboratory reagents, for analysis and for student’s practical.

2.      Those who are into research project on food, water and drugs (especially herbal meidicine). The challenge today with herbal medicine is the prescription. Most herbal medicine, the concentration of the therapeutic components such as alkaloids, flavanoids, tannins, phenolic compound etc are unknown; as such prescription of herbal medicine become a problem. This manual is of help on how to estimate the concentration of therapeutic component in herbal medicine.

3.      Undergraduates and graduates of biochemistry, chemistry, industrial chemistry, food science technology, science laboratory technology, nutrition, microbiology, pharmacology etc who have graduated with less exposure to practical techniques/analysis that has to do with their roles in food, water and drugs manufacturing industries.

4.      Laboratory analyst, laboratory technician, food and water consultants who are charge with responsibilities of assessing safety and quality of food, water, flour, oil, fruit juice and drug for the safety of human consumption.

5.      Manufacturers; both large and small scale manufacturer who are interested in producing national and international quality products that will meet both national and international standard. Some of the set aside standard reference values set by food safety regulatory bodies are also contain in this manual. More also, some manufacturers have been unable to produce quality products because they are unable to identify quality raw materials. For example, manufacturer may want wheat flour for production but end up been deceived with corn, cassava etc. This problem can be solved by carrying out microscopic test for starch structure in the flour.

6.      Finally, consumers; we are all consumers of one products or the other, it’s now common that some manufacturers add banned substance to food/water such as saccharine in flavor drinks, potassium bromate in bread or any bakery product, melamine in milk power/dairy products etc. Most manufacturers add these substances to their products because of selfish interest without minding the harms it might cause to human life.

Above, all the manual is of help on how to check present of natural occur contaminant/toxins such as ergot in flour/grains, aflactoxins and thermophilic flat sour sporesformers.