FAQ
General
Please refer to the packing and shipping guidelines outlined here
For most analyses, the standard turnaround time (TAT) is 10 business days from when the laboratory receives your sample. If your sample is received past 10:30am, day 1 will begin the following business day.
The following exceptions apply:
Microbiological Analyses: 5 business days
Nutritional Labeling (Chemical Analysis): 15 business days
Nutritional Labeling (Database Calculation): 5 business days
Yes, you can drop off the sample during our business hours 9am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday. Our lab is located at 1375 Van Dyke Ave, San Francisco, CA 94124.
Our new lab in Los Angeles will be open for drop-offs shortly.
We provide pickup/sampling services throughout much of California. Please check with your Customer Representative to see if your location falls on one of our pickup routes.
We accept check, credit card, wire transfer, cash, and ACH.
First phone us at 415-822-1100 or submit a quote request via our website. Our CS representative will reply with a formal quotation as soon as possible after receiving your inquiry, generally the same business day.
Once the quotation is accepted, you will be provided a link to complete our onboarding documents via Adobe Echosign. Completing the forms should take less than 3 minutes.
The last step is submitting your samples for analysis. The samples can be shipped to our laboratory, dropped off during normal business hours, or picked up by one of our samplers.
You will receive email notification when your samples are received and when your Certificates of Analysis (COAs) are available. You can also track the status of your samples, download COAs, view invoices, and more via our client portal. Just ask your CS representative if you’d like to set up a portal account.
You will receive emails when your samples are received by our laboratory and when your results are complete. Additionally, you can view and download all results from our client portal, 24/7/365.
For general questions or inquiries, feel free to email us at info@anresco.com. Alternately, you can call us (415-822-1100) or chat us via the website Monday through Friday from 9am-5:30pm PST.
If for micro analysis, then yes, it would be a good idea to use sterile bags to pack your samples. For other analyses it is usually not a requirement.
Microbiology
For microbiological analyses, we require the submission of 1 retail unit. If the retail unit is less than 4 ounces, we require the submission of multiple retail units combining to 4 ounces or more. If the food product is in bulk, we require the submission of at least 8 ounces to ensure we receive a representative sample.
Shelf Life
Unfortunately, Anresco does not perform shelf life studies under accelerated conditions. If a product has an expected viability of 6 months, the shelf life study must continue for the entire 6 months. Conducting a real time stability study under normal storage conditions is much more accurate than accelerated studies due to the fact that there are a number of environmental, chemical, and physical factors that can affect food stability and that can be difficult to predict.
Shelf life studies require the submission of 1 retail unit per testing interval or period. Additional samples are recommended to be submitted so that the study can be extended if desired.
Shelf life is the amount of time before a food product becomes unfit for consumption. While not mandatory in the US, most retailers require such testing from their vendors in order to obtain a valid expiration date.
The cost and period depend largely on the life expectancy of the product and how many testing periods are required. If you would like a formalized testing proposal and quote, please complete the questionnaire at the following link and our lab team will respond as soon as they can:
Nutritional Labeling
Most likely, yes. Almost all food products sold commercially require a nutrient label. However, exemptions exist for the following:
- Raw fruits, vegetables, and fish.
- Food items containing insignificant amounts of all required nutrients.
- Retailers with annual gross sales of $500,000 or less
(or)
- Retailers with annual gross sales of foods or dietary supplements to consumers of $50,000 or less.
(Note: “Retailer” refers to any entity down the supply chain. So if you intend to sell to a major grocery chain, you will be required to obtain a nutrient label.)
Other exemptions may apply. Read more about nutrition labeling exemptions here .
If any nutrient content claim (e.g. low fat, sugar free) is labeled or advertised, the FDA mandates a nutrient label to be produced for that product and the small business exemption does not apply.
The turnaround time on nutritional labeling is 15 business days if performed via chemical analysis, and 5 business days if performed via database calculation. Faster service may be available for an additional surcharge.
It depends. Although our database contains nutrient information on thousands of different food products and ingredients, many exotic or more complex ingredients may not have such information available. In addition, products that have undergone intensive manufacturing processes (such as frying, dehydration, fermentation, etc.) may not be eligible for a database calculation.
Anresco requires the following:
- The recipe of your product
- The final retail package size
- A picture of the Nutrition Facts Label for any ingredients that are purchased prepackaged
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Certainly. All Anresco employees are obligated under company policy to maintain client confidentiality. Upon request, Anresco can additionally provide you with a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement for extra assurance.
Yes, FDA accepts nutritional labeling via database calculation as long as the reported values are within 15% of the actual nutritional content. However, chemical analysis will always be more accurate than database calculation.
Anresco utilizes the ESHA Master Food and Nutrition Database, which is itself an aggregation of various databases including the USDA Standard Reference Database. With over 100,000 food items listed, it is the gold standard for database calculation.
No, there is no added charge.
We use AOAC methods for all assays required for nutritional labeling.
The following are required fields on the nutritional label:Calcium, Calories, Carbohydrates, Cholesterol, Dietary Fiber, Iron, Protein, Serving Size, Servings Per Container, Sodium, Sugars, Total Fat, Trans Fatty Acids, Vitamin D, Potassium, Added Sugars, Saturated Fats
Additionally, we can include the following upon request:
Monounsaturated Fats, Other carbohydrates, Polyunsaturated Fats
Pesticides
No, unfortunately our pesticide residue screens do not include glyphosate. Glyphosate is a very difficult analysis and must be run separately.
For general pesticide testing, we recommend our USDA NOP MRA (National Organic Program Multi-Residue Analysis), which includes over 300 of the most widely used pesticides on the USDA NOP list. While this doesn’t include every pesticide we can test for (e.g. glyphosate), it is our most commonly selected option for verifying regulatory compliance.
If there are specific pesticides that you require testing for, please first check with an Anresco customer service representative.