Food Safety and Laboratory Consulting

Vanguard Laboratory offers consulting for food, beverage, supplement, peptide, pharmaceutical and cosmetic manufacturers. Our scientists bring experience in chemistry, microbiology, chromatography, mass spectrometry, metals and process authority work, and our team has consulted for clients ranging from startups to very large companies, including military and federal agency projects.

We also work with a team of affiliated consultants whose expertise extends what our staff covers. For each project we bring together the people whose experience fits the work, and when testing is needed it can be done here in our lab.

Consulting services

Some clients need an answer to one question. Others need a full program written, validated and handed over. We can do either.

Food safety, HACCP and GFSI

  • Writing or reviewing HACCP plans and FSMA preventive controls food safety plans.
  • Hazard analysis, critical limits, and the monitoring, verification and validation records that go with them.
  • Getting ready for an SQF, BRCGS or other GFSI audit, and closing out findings afterward.
  • Prerequisite programs such as GMPs, sanitation, allergen control and supplier approval.

Process validation and process authority

Environmental monitoring programs

  • Which organisms to target, how many sites, which zones and how often to sample.
  • Setting up trending so a problem shows up before it reaches product.
  • What to do when positives keep coming back, including vector sampling and finding the harborage site.
  • Programs for food plants and for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and peptide production areas.

Preservative and formulation work

  • Choosing or adjusting a preservative system for beverages, sauces, supplements and topicals.
  • Finding out why a product failed a challenge test or preservative efficacy test and what to change.
  • pH, acidulant, water activity and formula changes to make a product shelf stable or to remove an ingredient.
  • Billed at $450 per hour with a 2.5-hour minimum ($1,125) to start. This is for formulation work beyond a standard process authority letter.

Analytical method development

  • Developing and validating quantitative HPLC, UHPLC, GC and LC-MS/MS methods, and bridging methods when a product, column or instrument changes.
  • Elemental impurities and trace metals by ICP-MS, including sample preparation and digestion.
  • Troubleshooting methods that drift, lose resolution or fail system suitability.
  • Peptide purity, identity and impurity questions, reviewed by a PhD peptide chemist.

Pharmaceutical and nutraceutical quality

  • Development and release testing plans: assay, impurities, dissolution, content and blend uniformity, and water content.
  • GMP gap reviews for dietary supplement and drug manufacturers.
  • Stability study design, specifications and shelf-life dating.
  • CMC and regulatory strategy, and scale-up from bench batches to production.

Lab setup and quality systems

  • Planning a new lab or an expansion: layout, workflow, utilities and instrument selection.
  • Installing, qualifying, maintaining and troubleshooting chromatography and mass spectrometry systems.
  • Quality management systems, SOPs, document control, training records and CAPA.
  • Method validation and verification packages, and getting ready for a customer or third-party audit.

Recalls, root cause and corrective action

  • Help when you have a pathogen positive, a customer complaint, a product hold or a recall.
  • Reviewing lab, molecular and epidemiology data to find the source and decide what to fix.
  • Root cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions that hold up at the next audit.
  • Verification testing before product goes back out.

How an engagement works

1Tell us what you need

Email [email protected] or use the form below with the product, the process, the problem and any deadline.

2Free scoping call

The first call is free. We talk through what you have, what you need and whether testing is part of it.

3Written quote

You get the plan, deliverables and timeline in writing. Formulation work is billed hourly. Other projects are quoted as a fixed project or by the hour.

4Work and report

You get the plan, protocol, validation report or recommendations in writing, with lab results if testing was part of the project. Follow-up questions after delivery are part of the job.

Who you work with

Depending on the project, these scientists from our lab work on it, along with affiliated consultants where the work calls for them.

Dustin Newman

Laboratory Director

Chemist, microbiologist and Process Authority. Food safety, process authority letters and laboratory quality systems.

Tori Johnson

Operations Director

BS in Animal Sciences with an emphasis in Chemistry. Sample management, workflow planning, quality documentation and project coordination.

Clay Renshaw, PhD

Senior Scientist

PhD in Chemistry. Peptide chemistry, peptide characterization and mass spectrometry.

Steve Lund

Senior Chemist

BS in Biology. Chromatography and mass spectrometry, quantitative methods, and LC-MS system qualification.

Marina Humphrey

Analytical Chemist

BS in Chemistry. Pharmaceutical development and GMP testing, stability studies and method bridging.

Chelsey Weatherill

Laboratory Manager

BS, microbiology and chemistry. Lab operations, metals analysis, method development and calibration.

Victoria Reddin

Analytical Chemist

BS in Environmental Science. Trace metals by ICP-MS, SOPs, training, data review and QA/QC.

Isabelle Tihista

Microbiologist

Bachelor’s in Biomedical Science. Food and water microbiology, endotoxin and sterility testing.

Katie Sobota

Microbiologist

BS in Microbiology. Public health microbiology and PCR.

Jake Pfeil

Analytical Chemist

Food science research background. HPLC and GC method development and ICP-MS sample preparation.

See some of our past work on our Representative Projects page.

Who it's for

  • Startups and small producers getting a first product to market.
  • Manufacturers adding a product, a line or a new process.
  • Supplement, peptide and pharmaceutical companies that need methods, stability data or GMP help.
  • Any company facing a deadline: an audit, a customer requirement, an inspection finding or a recall.

Frequently asked questions

How is consulting priced?

The first scoping call is free. Formulation work is $450 per hour with a 2.5-hour minimum to start. Other consulting is quoted after that call, either as a fixed project price or by the hour. Testing is quoted separately at our normal testing prices.

If you know which test you need, you can order it directly. Consulting makes sense when you need a program written or reviewed, a process validated, a study designed, or help working out why something failed. If you only need a standard process authority letter, see our process authority page.

Yes. Our team can review data, reports and certificates of analysis from any lab and tell you what they mean for your product or process.

Most work can be done remotely by call, email and document review. Site visits can be quoted when the project needs one.

Yes. We can sign your nondisclosure agreement before you send formulas, processes or data.

Yes. Contact us as soon as you can with what you know so far. Recall and root cause work is prioritized, and testing for those projects can be rushed.

Food and beverage, dietary supplements and nutraceuticals, peptides and research compounds, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and personal care, and drinking water and environmental work.

Yes. Having the testing and the consulting in the same place means the team reviewing your results is the team that designed the study. Testing is quoted separately.

Request a consulting quote

Prefer email? Write to [email protected].