Public laboratories get new equipment

The Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling Programme (TRAQUE) has provided equipment estimated at 6.1 million euros to public laboratories in Ghana.

Twenty-eight institutions, including the Food and Drugs Authority, the Ghana Standard Authority, Ghana Revenue Authority – Customs Division, Food Research Institute, Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, and the Institute of Industrial Research of CSIR are expected to benefit from the supplies.

The TRAQUE Programme is funded by the European Union (EU) to support the Ministry of Trade and Industry in private sector development, as well as review Ghana’s Quality Infrastructure to enable Ghana attain a national quality infrastructure which functions efficiently in-line with international best practice.

Mr. Frits Hendriks, a quality expert at the TRAQUE Programme, told journalists that the supply of new equipment is to enable the participating laboratories to provide better services to the business sector, and to government ministries, departments, and agencies in regulatory businesses.

The laboratory equipment can be divided between support to testing laboratories and support to calibration laboratories that deal primarily with measurements and measuring instruments.

He said the equipment that TRAQUE gave to the testing laboratories consisted in part of basic and general laboratory equipment.

For example, the typical pieces of glassware used in laboratories, chemical regents used in testing, ovens, autoclaves, incubators, fridges and freezers, storage cabinets, balances and microscopes, and a host of simple instruments, like grinders, mixers, and centrifuges, among others.

“With this type of equipment we can ensure the continuation of the basic operations of the laboratories,” Mr Hendriks said.

“The second part of the equipment provided is for doing specialised tests. Here one would find the advanced and high-tech equipment, like high performance liquid chromatographs, atomic absorption spectrometers, gas chromatographs, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, which all represent different analytical techniques of separating and identifying the individual elements of a substance (also if the elements are only present as a minute fraction of the substance, e.g. at the one part per million level and even one part per billion level), “ Mr. Hendriks explained.

According to him, there is also equipment for the analysis of petrol products, the strength testing of plastic pipes, the analysis of dietary fibres in food products, or their protein content, or fat content, or for the detection of pathogens in food. The large majority of the testing equipment will contribute to testing for a higher level of food safety.

He further explained that the new equipment for calibration laboratories will be used to reach a higher level of accuracy (or as expressed in metrology terms, a better level of uncertainty) for existing measurements, or for adding new ranges of measurements or completely new services.

“In particular, the capacities for calibrating pressure equipment will be considerably improved, covering the range to 8.000 bar and with much improved levels of accuracy. Also for electrical measurements a complete new laboratory will be realised, capable of measuring AC and DC current, voltage, inductance, and capacitance in a very broad range (from the nano level to the mega level), as well as with new time and frequency standards that are of prime importance to the telecommunication industry and service providers,” Mr. Hendriks explained.