Increasing numbers of businesses are turning to specialist analytical services as a way to add value and integrity to their products.
Cawthron Institute has responded to that increased demand by investing in additional highly sensitive stateof- the-art analytical technology, and employing more specialist staff.
“It all helps add value to the service we provide,” Cawthron Institute analytical services business development manager Augusta van Wijk says.
“Feedback so far from clients has been really positive, they are rapt we are staying ahead of market trends and providing them with an opportunity to differentiate their products in a competitive international market.”
Cawthron Institute provides specialist analytical services to a range of clients including those in the seafood, nutraceuticals and functional food industries.
“With a drive to export to international markets, a lot of companies are looking for ways to add value and integrity to their products,” Ms Van Wijk says.
“Identifying and quantifying valuable or desirable properties in your products using our technology and expertise, is a highly effective way to do that.”
International company, Seperex Nutritionals, is one such company. The Dunedin based business, which employs a small team of specialist staff focusing on nutritionals and functional food, has worked closely with Cawthron Institute for the past seven years.
Seperex Nutritionals senior scientist, Ralph Jack, says the institute has played a key part in its success.
“Cawthron Institute has been there pretty much from the start, supporting our development and expansion into international markets – their R&D was a big part of that,” he says.
“Basically, they just respond to what we need and go the extra mile for us.”
Adding to Cawthron Institute’s capability is the addition of two new staff members to its customised analytical services team, Dr Jonathan Puddick and Mike Boundy. The team now has nine technical staff, including five specialist staff, dedicated to method development using the latest UPLC/MS and LC/ MS analytical instrumentation.
Dr Puddick is an expert in mass spectrometry, whose focus will be isolating unique compounds in food or raw materials manufactured by primary industries, such dairy products, marine extract, or fruit and herbs. He is also helping develop new and better ways to analyse those compounds.
“We’re looking for health promoting properties and measuring concentrations of those beneficial compounds,” Dr Puddick says. “The client can then use that information to add value and integrity to their products.” With a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Waikato, Dr Puddick’s specialist research area is the structural characterisation of naturally occurring toxins and developing methods for their detection. “I enjoy science because it’s like solving a huge puzzle, fitting multiple pieces of evidence together to get a more complete picture,” he says. “It feels extremely rewarding when you can then use that information to help solve clients’ problems.”
