The Sanitary Chemistry Department checks medical adequacy and quality of food, materials which come into contact with food, foodstuffs, drinking, surface and swimming pool waters and bathing waters at natural bathing sites (seaside). The Department analyses waste water, sediments, sludge and waste, and assesses their impact on the environment. It co-operates in the following projects: Research and Monitoring of the Škocjan lagoon with the aim of renaturization and conservation of habitats and birds in the nature reserve, the project entitled the Reduction of Pollution in the Bay of Koper and the project the Research on Border Aquifers between the Bay of Trieste and Bay of Kvarner in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.
The Department consists of:
- Unit for Testing of Food Samples, Materials Coming into Contact with Food and Other Related Samples
- Unit for Testing of Water and Other Ecological Samples.
The laboratory is furnished with the state-of-the-art equipment and has highly qualified staff, who conducts exquisite research and analyses, such as the determination of traces of pesticides, polychloro-biphenyl (PCB), herbicides (e.g. atrazine and its metabolites), heavy metals, micotoxin, determination of presence of easily volatile substances (e.g. chlorinated and aromatic solvents).
Besides the content/presence of additives in food samples (e.g. preserving agents, artificial colouring agents, artificial sweetening agents, anti-oxidizing agents…) and the above-mentioned contaminants, the Department also determines their quality and nutritional value.
With our expertise and good work we do not only want to meet the requirements of inspection authority control, but also follow the development and needs of economic organisations as well as satisfy their needs for chemical research in the local environment. In order to meet customer’s needs, we invest special efforts in introducing internationally recognized methods needed for the maintenance of internal control.
Our permanent goals are as follows:
- high-quality analyses at the international level and enjoying recognition as well as arousing greater interest of our customers. The aim was met by the use of internationally recognized analysis methods and co-operation in programmes of external quality control within the framework of national and international interlaboratory comparison tests;
- permanent education and training of the employed staff with the aim to achieve higher level of knowledge and work, which has been provided by planned education and training;
- gaining confidence and satisfaction of service users, thereby spreading the scope of our activities;
- establishing positive trends in the field of health and environment protection and consumer protection. This goal has been reached by public presentation of laboratory work and integration into scientific research and educational work.
We have just entered into the final phase of the procedure for acquisition of the accreditation certificate (http://www.sigov.si/sa/teksti-1/slo/katalogsimain.htm#LP-044) LP-044 (http://www.sigov.si/sa/teksti-1/doc/test/LP044.pdf). The procedure follows the requirements of the International Standard for Laboratories SIST EN ISO/IEC 17025 for the selected methods in the field of drinking and waste waters and food. This would certainly mark an internationally recognizable award for our high-quality work.