Food Engineering logo
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTS
  • TOPICS
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • MEDIA
  • FOOD MASTER
  • EVENTS
  • RESOURCES
  • EMAGAZINE
  • SIGN UP!
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • NEWS
  • Latest Headlines
  • Manufacturing News
  • People & Industry News
  • Plant Openings
  • Recalls
  • Regulatory Watch
  • Supplier News
  • PRODUCTS
  • New Plant Products
  • New Retail Products
  • TOPICS
  • Alternative Protein
  • Automation
  • Cannabis
  • Cleaning | Sanitation
  • Fabulous Food Plants
  • Food Safety
  • Maintenance Strategies
  • OEE
  • Packaging
  • Sustainability
  • More
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • Plant Construction Survey
  • Plant of the Year
  • Sustainable Plant of the Year
  • State of Food Manufacturing
  • Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies
  • MEDIA
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • White Papers
  • EVENTS
  • Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo
  • Industry Events
  • RESOURCES
  • eNewsletter
  • Custom Content & Marketing Services
  • FE Store
  • Government Links
  • Industry Associations
  • Market Research
  • Classified Ads
  • EMAGAZINE
  • eMagazine
  • Archive Issue
  • Advertise
Food Engineering logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Food Engineering logo
  • NEWS
    • Latest Headlines
    • Manufacturing News
    • People & Industry News
    • Plant Openings
    • Recalls
    • Regulatory Watch
    • Supplier News
  • PRODUCTS
    • New Plant Products
    • New Retail Products
  • TOPICS
    • Alternative Protein
    • Automation
    • Cannabis
    • Cleaning | Sanitation
    • Fabulous Food Plants
    • Food Safety
    • Maintenance Strategies
    • OEE
    • Packaging
    • Sustainability
    • More
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Plant Construction Survey
    • Plant of the Year
    • Sustainable Plant of the Year
    • State of Food Manufacturing
    • Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies
  • MEDIA
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • FOOD MASTER
  • EVENTS
    • Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo
    • Industry Events
  • RESOURCES
    • eNewsletter
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • FE Store
    • Government Links
    • Industry Associations
    • Market Research
    • Classified Ads
  • EMAGAZINE
    • eMagazine
    • Archive Issue
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!

Engineering R&D

Making LIMS relevant to food processing today

LIMS (laboratory information management systems) software is often a generalized, "one-size-fits-all" approach, not fine-tuned for the food and beverage industry.

By Wayne Labs, Senior Contributing Technical Editor
Mark Bowden
Mark Bowden, CAT Squared research and development manager.
CAT Squared manufacturing software

CAT Squared specializes in developing manufacturing software for the food industry. Source: CAT Squared.

Mark Bowden
CAT Squared manufacturing software
February 19, 2016

Your company makes food and beverage products. So, why would you use information systems designed for metals, plastics or chemical products? They were developed for other industries and don’t address your specialized needs for quality control and food safety management. Plus, trying to adapt a general-coverage LIMS software application to fit your needs can be a real challenge and may be costly as well.

CAT Squared, a supplier of business intelligence, shop floor, quality and monitoring, warehousing and distribution software specifically for the food and beverage industry, has been fine-tuning its LIMS application to make it not only relevant to food and beverage, but also compatible with evolving quality and regulatory demands.

FE interviewed Mark Bowden, CAT Squared research and development manager, to get a handle on this ongoing process.


FE: LIMS is usually a generic application. What functions/capabilities does a typical LIMS provide?

Mark Bowden: As you may know, there are many fully generic lab products out there. While these products may be capable of testing the density of metal, that has little relevance to the food industry. By working with development partners in the food industry to determine the specifications for our LIMS product, we have been able to incorporate many processes that are specific to the industry, from preoperational testing and sample collection to the recording of test results, performing test approvals and auditing.
 

FE: What functions/capabilities should a food-/ beverage-specific LIMS application provide?

Bowden: Because the LIMS product development has been done with input from our partners in the food processing industry, many food-specific lab considerations have been included. For example, we can natively interface with equipment like the 3M plate reader and FoodScan analyzers that are widely used within the food processing industry.
 

FE: You’ve been working with Cargill to fine-tune LIMS even more. What are some of the results of these efforts?

Bowden: The value of developing our LIMS product with the help of major food processors like Cargill cannot be overstated. Our development partners provide us with information that allows us to focus more intensely on the specific needs of the food processing industry. From developing a process structure for sample collection that mirrors real-world manufacturing activities to creating testing-and-results collection steps to optimize lab performance, our development partners provide us with invaluable input to create feature-rich solutions for their laboratories.
 

FE: LIMS sometimes interfaces directly with internal lab instrumentation, but often doesn’t connect to many external systems. What changes are you seeing in this respect?

Bowden: Actually, LIMS has the ability to share information with other information systems as needed. In addition to our LIMS application, which is used for processing samples and recording test results in the lab, we can utilize our Interface Manager service along with custom interfaces to communicate with virtually any other information system. We routinely use a number of technologies, including direct database communications, XML, EDI, flat files and web services, to interface with these systems.
 

FE: Many food and beverage processors contract out lab services. How does your application accommodate input from these labs?

Bowden: Using our LIMS application, samples can be collected and barcoded, and a chain of custody can be generated for samples sent out to third-party labs along with XML documents containing relevant information about the samples. The labs complete their testing and record the results in the XML document, which can then be automatically imported back into LIMS.
 

FE: How should a modern LIMS connect with a food safety management system (FSMS)?

Bowden: We have customers that use the LIMS software to tie into their shipping systems, with lab personnel placing a product lot on hold if the test results warrant it. This process prevents a bill of lading for suspect product from ever being generated and that product from being distributed.
 

FE: How should a modern LIMS interface with a quality management system (QMS)?

Bowden: Interestingly, the LIMS software is really a sister application to one of our flagship products called HAT [Hazard Analysis Tools] in that they share a common structure. While LIMS is designed for the lab testing of samples, HAT software serves both food safety and quality management purposes on the plant floor. There are almost endless uses for HAT software as a production-management tool, ranging from identifying food safety hazards to improving overall production yields. We are currently scheduled to launch a new application called FSQM [Food Safety Quality Management] in 2016 that incorporates our best HAT features and adds many more.
 

FE: Measurements previously made in a lab can now be done in/on line. How does a LIMS accommodate automated external inputs?

Bowden: Our systems include technologies utilizing wireless handheld devices that access TCP-IP connections, wireless Bluetooth connectivity, tablet applications, touchscreen desktop applications and others. When provided with the appropriate communication protocols, we can even connect to equipment and instruments and access their data directly.
 

FE: How does a LIMS accommodate supplier specifications for ingredients?

Bowden: LIMS can be used for testing anything a lab can accommodate and includes the capability for users to create their own user-definable sample attributes, which we call sample descriptors. With these sample descriptors, users can collect virtually any type of information they want and tailor the LIMS product for their specific needs.
 

FE: What is the future of LIMS in food and beverage?

Bowden: As an industry, we are always moving closer to a completely paperless environment. One recent enhancement to our LIMS application is a module, called the Data Communications Manager, that is used to create user-definable electronic forms, which can be used to replace paper-based government forms and versioned as the form requirements change. Additionally, the electronic forms can be broken into groups, with one set of people completing a section of a document and having the system automatically notify another set of people that the document needs their attention.
 

For more information, visit catsquared.com.

KEYWORDS: instrumentation laboratory quality control regulations software

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Wayne labs 200px
Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
to unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Global Organic Food & Beverage Market to Grow

    Global Organic Food & Beverage Market to Grow

    With a CAGR of 12.07%, Bonafide Research estimates this...
    Latest headlines
  • skilled MEP worker

    Predicting Food and Beverage Manufacturing Trends for 2024

    The two words that should be kept in mind are labor and...
    Automation
    By: Derrick Teal
  • cleaning and sanitation

    The basics of cleaning and sanitation in food plants

    Sanitation maintains or restores a state of cleanliness...
    Cleaning | Sanitation
    By: Richard F. Stier
close

1 COMPLIMENTARY ARTICLE(S) LEFT

Loader

Already a Registered User? Sign in now.

Subscribe For Free!
  • eMagazine
  • eNewsletter
  • Online Registration
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Customer Service

Food Plant Openings and Expansions May 2025

Food Plant Openings and Expansions May 2025

OT Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities in Food Manufacturing Facilities

OT Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities in Food Manufacturing Facilities

Understanding Impacts of OT Cybersecurity Events in Food Manufacturing

Understanding Impacts of OT Cybersecurity Events in Food Manufacturing

Food Plant Openings and Expansions April 2025

Food Plant Openings and Expansions April 2025

More Videos

Popular Stories

Vilter IHP in plant

Industrial Heat Pumps: Sustainable Energy Solutions for Now and the Future

FMTE Formed by Four Food Manufacturing Companies

Coalition Unites Europe’s Food Manufacturing Technologies and Equipment Sector

Butterfly pea flower

FDA Approves Three Food Colors from Natural Sources

CHECK OUT OUR NEW ESSENTIAL TOPICS

Alternative ProteinAutomationCleaning/SanitationFabulous Food Plants

Food SafetyMaintenance StrategiesOEE

PackagingSustainability

Events

June 17, 2025

Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ State of the Cold Chain

Kelley Rodriguez, Editor in Chief of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, will be joined in this 60-minute webinar by industry experts to help unpack the latest research.

January 1, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Recent Advances in Ready-to-Eat Food Technology

Recent Advances in Ready-to-Eat Food Technology

See More Products

Plant of the Year

Related Articles

  • Operational Resiliency

    Today’s Connected Plant: A Unified Machine for Making Food

    See More
  • Automation, especially on the packaging and material handling side of an operation can assume a lot of jobs that are boring and tiring

    Automation and food processing today: It's about labor

    See More
  • Automation and food processing

    Automation and food processing today: It’s about labor

    See More
×
Mark Bowden, CAT Squared research and development manager.
CAT Squared specializes in developing manufacturing software for the food industry. Source: CAT Squared.

Elevate your expertise in food engineering with unparalleled insights and connections.

Get the latest industry updates tailored your way.

JOIN TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Food Master
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

Food Engineering logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Food Engineering logo
  • NEWS
    • Latest Headlines
    • Manufacturing News
    • People & Industry News
    • Plant Openings
    • Recalls
    • Regulatory Watch
    • Supplier News
  • PRODUCTS
    • New Plant Products
    • New Retail Products
  • TOPICS
    • Alternative Protein
    • Automation
    • Cannabis
    • Cleaning | Sanitation
    • Fabulous Food Plants
    • Food Safety
    • Maintenance Strategies
    • OEE
    • Packaging
    • Sustainability
    • More
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Plant Construction Survey
    • Plant of the Year
    • Sustainable Plant of the Year
    • State of Food Manufacturing
    • Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies
  • MEDIA
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • FOOD MASTER
  • EVENTS
    • Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo
    • Industry Events
  • RESOURCES
    • eNewsletter
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • FE Store
    • Government Links
    • Industry Associations
    • Market Research
    • Classified Ads
  • EMAGAZINE
    • eMagazine
    • Archive Issue
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!