Government-owned AsureQuality has established an Auckland-based export wine certification laboratory to analyse wine destined for Europe. AsureQuality is a commercial company that provides food safety and biosecurity services to the food and primary pr
Government-owned AsureQuality has established an Auckland-based export wine certification laboratory to analyse wine destined for Europe.
AsureQuality is a commercial company that provides food safety and biosecurity services to the food and primary production sectors.
The organisation has been granted formal recognition by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) for analysing wines for export to the European Union (EU).
Dubbed the “wine cellar” because of its location in the customised basement area of the chemistry block extension, the new laboratory is part of the recent 819m2 refurbishment at the Lynfield site.
The laboratory, which employs four highly experienced specialists, is already testing a significant amount of New Zealand’s export wine.
Scott Leathem, Auckland laboratory operations manager, said the facility currently has a turn around time for results of three days.
“The testing methods we use for the wine export certification programme are all based on the EU reference methods and are NZFSA recognised, which means we can ensure the best results possible for our customers,” Mr Scott says.
The range of analyses for the export certification programme includes: actual alcohol (distillation/density); total alcohol (sugars/alcohol by calculation); total dry extract (density); and citric acidity.
