Here at Precision Laboratories, we value quality, and we emphasize this in all of our procedures. We want to ensure our customer’s receive an excellent product that they are completely satisfied with, and that we are proud to stand behind. For this reason, we have rigorous quality assurance procedures in place for all product lines. Today, we’re going to explain some of the quality procedures in the manufacture of our dipslides.

Raw Materials

Let’s start with the sourcing of raw materials. We have an approved list of vendors, and we purchase exclusively from those vendors. However, even when raw materials arrive, we are still always checking their quality.

Our agar formulations have also been tested by an outside laboratory. If you should ever require it, we do have certifications from EMSL Analytical verifying each agar we sell. The validation contains information such as organisms tested, whether or not they should grow on the agar, and the results achieved. In addition, although the agar formulations and the supplier have not changed, we still randomly test batches in-house to ensure the results are as expected.

Production

Production of the dipslides occurs in a sterile cleanroom, which has procedures in place to ensure the room maintains a sterile environment, all equipment is maintained, and cleanroom technicians are properly gowned. The cleanroom is small in size to minimize potential contamination. It contains a series of 3 filters, including a HEPA filter, which circulate air in a laminar flow out of the room, through the filters, and back into the room.

Cleanroom technicians follow specific procedures for gowning and preparing to enter the cleanroom. The number of technicians is limited to two at a time to reduce contamination. Strict guidelines are also followed while technicians are in the cleanroom.

Although the cleanroom is sterile, the dipslide equipment is designed to limit the exposure of the paddles to the air, again to reduce potential contamination. The average time of exposure is only 4 minutes. Our rate of contamination is less than 1%.

Inspection

After production is finished, each batch of dipslides is incubated in a room at 78-80°F for 5 days. If any contaminants made it onto the paddles, they will grow to a macroscopic level in this environment. Although our contamination rate is so low, and we work hard to maintain a sterile environment, we still take the time to inspect each and every paddle after they are removed from incubation.

Every paddle is inspected for contaminants, flaws in the agar, cracks in the vial, or any other such impurities. These paddles are removed from the lot.

We take great pride in the quality of our products, and hopefully that’s clear from the rigorous procedures we have just outlined. Our customers are our livelihood, and we wouldn’t want to sell them anything that has not met our highest standards.