Cross-Contaminant Testing

To ensure that a mineral or vitamin processed earlier in the day doesn’t contaminate the following production run, Trouw Nutrition runs a cross-contamination study. Cross-contamination studies should be performed at least twice a year, on complex new products, and especially on premixes containing minerals or high-risk chemical ingredients (HRCIs), such as such as zinc, selenium or vitamin A.

Typically conducted in conjunction with a mixer study, a cross-contamination study is meticulously scheduled, so the tested ingredient is included in the first production run but not in the second. For example, Trouw Nutrition may produce a premix with vitamin A, flush the system according to standard operating procedures (SOPs), and run a premix containing a mineral. The second premix will be tested to see if it contains any vitamin A. The vitamin A results are correlated to past findings to determine the coefficient of correlation (CCr), which must be a three or lower to pass.