Mocon, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOCO) and the Guelph Food Technology Center (GFTC) have partnered to establish a certified permeation testing lab at GFTC.

GFTC will now operate the first Mocon-certified test facility in Canada, and only the second non-Mocon owned and operated in the world. (The first was in partnership with Hemetek, Mumbai, India.) The two Mocon-certified facilities are in addition to the four company-owned and operated laboratory locations (Minneapolis, Austin, Texas, Germany and China).“Our partnership with the well-respected GFTC, will now enable Canadian food and beverage brand owners to have access to the gold standard in permeation testing in their own back yard,” said Alan Shema, product manager for consulting and testing services, Mocon.

GFTC will now offer material and finished flexible package testing on Mocon’s highly-sensitive oxygen (Ox-Tran) and moisture (Permatran) permeation units. Not only do the units offer greater sensitivity but also higher throughput than what was previously available at GFTC. Additionally, packages can be tested at specific humidity levels and temperatures. “GFTC is a global leader in food safety, training, quality and technical solutions. We offer the most up-to-date knowledge to leading companies in the food and beverage industry. Upgrading our capability as a Mocon-certified lab is just one more way we can offer leading-edge services to our members,” said Carol Zweep, manager, packaging and labelling services, GFTC.

In addition to the state-of-the-art equipment, certification means that GFTC’s technicians have been trained on Mocon's corporate test lab methods/protocols and record keeping to insure equivalency.

“Mocon certification assures that companies using GFTC’s facility will get the same level of service and quality they would find at our U.S. headquarters,” Shema says. “Mocon will be responsible for maintaining the equipment to make sure that it continues to meet operational standards.”