Innovation and reliability: automation at the service of food quality and safety

Event organized by R-Biopharm Italia Srl.

The R-Biopharm International Group has been active in the development and supply of analytical solutions for food and feed diagnostics for over 35 years.
The issue of food allergens is critically important to food safety and requires precise and reliable analytical methods to ensure products are safe for allergic consumers.
R-Biopharm offers various analytical techniques to support allergen management systems, each tailored to meet the specific needs of manufacturers, consumers, and regulatory bodies.
Allergen monitoring begins with the inspection of raw materials, including sourcing, transportation, and storage. It continues inside production facilities, where cleaning and sanitation procedures are applied to production lines and verified through surface and wash water analyses.
Finally, the process involves testing performed by service or official laboratories using accredited analytical methods.
R-Biopharm's portfolio includes various analytical technologies:

• Lateral flow tests with the bioavid and RIDA®QUICK lines: a qualitative, easy-to-use, rapid, and cost-effective method, ideal for on-the-spot allergen detection.
• ELISA immunoassay with the RIDASCREEN® line: a quantitative method that allows direct detection of allergenic proteins. This sensitive and automatable technology offers accurate evaluation of allergen levels in tested samples.
• Molecular biology with the SureFood® line: a qualitative and quantitative method based on DNA extraction and amplification using advanced instruments. It ensures precise allergen detection and quantification in samples.

R-Biopharm’s analytical solutions cover a wide range of needs for allergen management in the food industry. The variety of technologies offered enables accurate and comprehensive allergen monitoring throughout the entire food chain, ensuring food safety for producers, consumers, and quality control professionals.

Session Content

Quality and safety monitoring of food, beverages, and feed plays a key role in the processing industry. That’s why it's essential to rely on analytical systems that deliver fast and reliable results.

In this context, RIDA®CUBE SCAN and Pictus 500 instruments automate enzymatic tests—long considered official reference methods in the food sector due to their specificity for target analytes, ensuring no interference even in processed or complex matrices.

Applications are broad and include both manufacturing companies (e.g. canned vegetables, dairy products, confectionery, meat products, infant food, wine, beverages) and third-party control laboratories. These tests are used to measure:

• Basic components (e.g. sugars, organic acids, alcohols, and other metabolites) in ingredients, semi-finished and finished products
• Quality and authenticity indicators, such as glucose/fructose ratio, citric/isocitric acid in fruit-based intermediates, lactic and acetic acid
• Safety indicators such as sulfites, lactose, nitrates, and trace glutamates
• Digestibility indicators in conventional and novel foods (e.g. starch, alpha-amino nitrogen)

The AP22 ELITE instrument is the ideal solution for ensuring chemical safety in the food sector in a fully automated way. Combined with RIDASCREEN® ELISA kits, based on highly specific antigen-antibody binding, AP22 ELITE enables the quantification of allergens and mycotoxins. These tests are quantitative, highly sensitive, and sample preparation is simple and standardized across multiple allergen types.

For faster monitoring of contaminants—such as mycotoxins and allergens on surfaces and wash waters from production lines—lateral flow strip tests can be used. The RIDA®SMART BOX, in combination with the RIDA®SMART APP, allows for digital reading and storage of results, enhancing traceability. Furthermore, using RIDA®QUICK QUANT kits for gluten, the analysis becomes quantitative.