Innovation and technology

The State Laboratory embraces innovation in order to continuously improve, deliver best in class services and to tackle the many challenges and opportunities that arise. Developing expertise in staff and pioneering the latest technologies are essential to meet the changing requirements of clients. Some of our recent arrivals are listed below.

A new two-dimensional gas chromatography Time-of-Flight (2D-GC-TOF) system will be used in the Customs and Excise Section to analyse the updated EU fiscal fuel marker introduced in January 2024. This is the first time the State Laboratory has used two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. This combination of 2D chromatography, coupled to mass spectrometry gives very high levels of performance with respect to both sensitivity and specificity. This technique also has other potential uses for challenging analyses the laboratory are currently tasked with as well as offering opportunities of using this type of technology to address new analytical requests.

Liquid Chromatography Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (QQQ LCMS) has been utilised in the laboratory for over 20 years. The lab utilises this techniques in a number of sections and regularly updates its suite of instruments, to ensure that the most up to date LC-MS/MS systems are available to help the sections meet their analytical objectives. There are over 15 LC-MS/MS systems in use in the laboratory. Two new triple quadrupole mass spectrometers were purchased in the last year, both are replacements for end-of-life equipment. One is in use in the Health Section for analysis of mycotoxins in food and feed. The other is in the Veterinary Toxicology Section for analysis of veterinary residues in food of animal origin. The lab also utilises Gas Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) for a number of applications.

Two of these instruments arrived in early 2024, both are replacements for end-of-life equipment. One will be used in the Health section for analysis of mycotoxins in food and feed. The other will be used in the Veterinary Toxicology section for analysis of veterinary residues in food of animal origin.

The laboratory recently purchased another high resolution accurate mass (HRAM LCMS) system to add to our fleet of High Resolution Mass Spectrometers. This system will be used in the Human Toxicology HRMS Section to analyse samples from post-mortem examinations for prescribed drugs and drugs of abuse. It offers advantages of targeted and non-targeted analyses for potentially 1000’s of compounds. As well as this, it also enables the use of retrospective analysis to look at data that has been run previously to determine if a drug was present that we didn’t search for at the time of the original analyses.

A new automated clean-up system was purchased in 2024 and will be used in the Contaminants Section to clean-up samples submitted for Dioxins and PCBs analysis. Dioxins and PCBs analysis has been performed in the laboratory for over 15 years. Sample clean-up and concentration is a critical step in this analysis to enable the laboratory to achieve sub part per trillion limits of quantitation. This new clean-up system will complement a similar system in use, and will replace an outdated system which required significantly larger volumes of organic solvents for each sample. The new system also has the potential to be used for other analysis in the future. This system was introduced to improve contingency in the suite of instrumentation used for Dioxins and PCBs analysis which is performed for various clients, for official control of food and feed, and for environmental monitoring purposes.