Innovation Award 2025

Rethinking the routine with smarter nutritional testing

What if there was a better way to deliver fast, accurate food testing at scale? 

When our Food team in the UK asked this question, it sparked a step-change – a smarter way to support clients with the routine, legislated testing they must undertake under EU law.  

This is a powerful example of curiosity in action. At ALS, curiosity is a driving force behind innovation. 

By fostering a culture where curiosity thrives, we unlock new possibilities and develop smarter solutions that directly benefit our clients and support their evolving needs.

In our Food business, the team embraced this mindset by rethinking how Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR)* could be applied, ultimately developing a faster, more sustainable and cost-effective method to analyse nutritional content. This project earned them the 2025 ALS Innovation Award.

In an environment where AI and machine learning are increasingly used to decode food, many efforts stall due to inadequate laboratory data. But with the capacity to process 1,800 samples weekly for full nutritional labels, our Food team was well-positioned to approach the problem differently. 

By combining that data with innovative thinking and collaborating closely with our GeoAnalytics team, they developed one of the world’s most comprehensive NIR-based models for nutritional prediction — delivering results in seconds across a wide range of food types.

The team then went on to secure ISO 17025 accreditation — an internationally recognised standard that confirms the method’s scientific validity and the laboratory’s technical competence. This gives our clients confidence that results are accurate, consistent and produced under a robust quality management system.
And according to General Manager, Innovation & Client Value, Food, Tim Lumb, there’s more to come. 

“This isn’t just about faster testing,” said Tim. “It’s also about smarter science, sustainable practices and delivering real value to our clients and communities.

ALS is positioned for the future, and this service offering is scalable, easy to transfer to multiple sites and can even be leveraged by our clients directly in the factory.”

* NIR testing is a quick, easy to use and reliable method used for quality control in food chemistry.