Understand which tests matter, what the results tell you, and how the right methods help you catch problems before they become recalls.

Food safety is no longer just a compliance obligation. The same practices regulators expect— identifying hazards early, verifying that controls are working, and documenting everything—also protect your production deadlines, your customers, and your brand.

This guide from Pace® walks through the microbiology and chemistry testing programs food manufacturers rely on and examines the analytical methods behind them.

Here’s just some of what we cover:

• The regulatory picture: how FDA, USDA, and FSMA shape testing expectations across the supply chain

• Pathogen testing: the organisms of greatest concern, from Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes to E. coli O157:H7 and Cronobacter, and the risks they pose

• Indicator and spoilage testing: what elevated APC, coliform, Enterobacteriaceae, and yeast and mold counts are telling you about sanitation and process control

• Chemistry testing: quality indicators, contaminant analysis, and nutritional and compositional testing

• Shelf-life studies: the microbial, physiochemical, oxidative, and packaging factors that determine best-by and use-by dating

• Methods compared: culture vs. PCR, plus when immunoassays, NGS, LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, and other techniques are the right fit