![]() I place great emphasis on sensory testing because I believe properly trained noses can identify smells that may be diffused and/or missed in chemical testing. Q HOW IS THE PORTOCORK LAB’S SENSORY TESTING UNIQUE FROM OTHER LABS? In addition, we test outgoing cork to ensure it has the 5.5%-7.5% desired moisture content and an extraction rating of 30+/- 10daN. In total we tested more than 1,000,000 incoming corks in 2016, or more than 1 out of every 300. Our customer comes in to the Portocork laboratory to test along with us to find the best cork for their needs. We select the corks for the customers and soak them in wine (or a solution of the customer’s choice) for 24 hours. However, we feel it is an important service to offer our customers. This is very labor intensive because it is comparable to do the incoming testing twice. Customer Sensory: One of the unique things we do is bring customers in to the Portocork lab to do their evaluations. Customer Sampling:After corks are visually and chemically tested, we then send them to customers for their own internal testing.ģ. We are very proud of the fact that we not only meet, but exceed CQC criteria by sampling more than double the required quantity of corks.Ģ. Internal Quality Control –Incoming cork from Portugal is tested using Cork Quality Council (CQC) methodologies.To fulfill that mission, we’ve formalized three levels of screening: ![]() Now we are nine total in our laboratory services. When I joined Portocork, the lab had two technicians and within three months added a third technician to better handle the workflow. HOW HAVE YOU INFLUENCED THE LAB SINCE JOINING PORTOCORK? ![]() ![]() My experience teaching the methodology in the Institute’s Masters-level program, plus my educational and research background in food microbiology (including wine fermentation,) is what attracted Portocork to me. In 2005, Portocork was looking for someone to supervise their in-house lab who had experience with HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point.) The methodology is not common in the U.S., but in Europe where we experienced significant food safety scares, HACCP is widely embraced. Sodini left Paris in 2004 for a one-year research post at Cal Poly, and then joined Portocork to develop and manage our in-house laboratory. She was an Assistant Professor at the Institut National Agronomique de Paris-Grignon, where she taught food microbiology and HACCP methodology. ![]()
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