Testing labs in Pessac

AQUITAINE ANALYSES – Laboratoire AQUANAL is an independent French analytical testing laboratory headquartered in Pessac, in the Bordeaux metropolitan area of southwestern France. Founded in 1989 by Dr. Didier Guillonneau, who remains the company's president, the laboratory has built more than three decades of specialist expertise in physico-chemical and microbiological analyses for the agrifood sector. AQUANAL operates as a wholly independent entity with no affiliation to major industrial groups, a structure that guarantees impartiality and confidentiality for its manufacturing and formulation clients. The laboratory serves food and beverage producers, infant and medical nutrition manufacturers, dietary supplement companies, and animal feed producers across France and internationally. AQUANAL's core mission is supporting clients with the analyses required for nutritional labeling compliance (contrôle de l'étiquetage nutritionnel). The laboratory provides comprehensive proximate composition testing covering moisture, total protein, total lipids, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and caloric value — the full set of macronutrient parameters required under European food labeling regulations. Sugar profiling (glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, maltose), polyol determination, cholesterol quantification, sorbic acid analysis, and amino acid profiling are also performed routinely, giving clients a complete compositional picture of their finished products or raw materials. AQUANAL is recognized across France and Europe as a leading specialist in vitamin analysis for both human and animal nutrition. The laboratory performs quantification of the full range of nutritionally relevant vitamins: fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K1, and beta-carotene; and water-soluble vitamins C, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), PP (niacin), B8 (biotin), B9 (folic acid), and B12 (cobalamin). Methods applied include HPLC with UV and fluorescence detection as well as microbiological methods. Notably, AQUANAL is the only laboratory in Europe to perform the quantification of vitamin K2 under COFRAC accreditation, a distinction that reflects both the depth of its technical capability and the caliber of its method development program. Mineral and trace element analysis is another pillar of the laboratory's service portfolio. AQUANAL employs inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), and microwave mineralization sample preparation to quantify macrominerals and micronutrients including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, iodine, and other nutritionally or toxicologically relevant elements. This instrumentation equally supports heavy metal determination — lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and related analytes — in food matrices, dietary supplements, and animal feed materials. Microbiological testing completes the laboratory's analytical offer, with pathogen detection (Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and related indicators) and total viable count and enumeration services forming a growing part of operations, with this division expanding at over 20 percent annually in line with food safety regulatory demand. The laboratory holds COFRAC (Comité Français d'Accréditation) accreditation number 1-0703, granted in conformity with the international standard NF EN ISO/CEI 17025, the globally recognized benchmark for testing and calibration laboratory competence. The accreditation scope encompasses physico-chemical analyses for determining composition, quality, technological criteria, and nutritional labeling across multiple product categories: various foods (aliments divers), cereal products, dairy products, fats and oils, beverages (excluding drinking water) and sweetener products, and animal feed. The scope operates under a flexible accreditation regime (portée flexible), allowing the laboratory to extend proven methods to new matrices or analytes within its established technical competence without individual re-approval steps. AQUANAL joined the BIPEA (Bureau Interprofessionnel d'Études Analytiques) interlaboratory proficiency testing scheme in 1990 and has participated continuously since, further demonstrating metrological rigor. AQUANAL occupies a purpose-built 2,030 m² facility in Pessac completed in May 2017 following a 3.3-million-euro investment. The building, designed to reflect the laboratory's professional identity and to optimize analytical workflow, houses dedicated zones for physico-chemical and microbiological work, acid product handling, sample reception, and client services. Equipment includes approximately twenty HPLC chromatography chains, biorobotic automated platforms for high-throughput analyses, ICP and AAS spectrometers, microwave mineralizers, and laminar flow biosafety cabinets. Throughput exceeds 20,000 vitamin analyses per year, illustrating the industrial-scale capacity available to clients with large submission volumes. AQUANAL serves a broad cross-section of the food, nutrition, and feed industries. Primary client sectors include manufacturers of infant formula and powdered milk, producers of medical and clinical nutrition products, dietary supplement and functional food brands, dairy processors, cereal and bakery manufacturers, oils and fats producers, beverage companies, and animal feed formulators. The laboratory additionally holds Ministry of Agriculture authorization for export certification of specialized food products, obtained in 1993, which supports international trade documentation needs for clients shipping to regulated markets. With its unique vitamin K2 COFRAC accreditation, long-established independence, flexible accreditation scope covering all major food matrices, and a modern high-throughput facility near Bordeaux, AQUANAL represents a credible and technically capable partner for any organization requiring rigorous nutritional, mineral, or microbiological testing of food, dietary supplement, or feed products.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by COFRAC (No. 1-6098) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Located at 33600, Pessac, France.