Current operations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Current operations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Although you may not have noticed a disruption in our service, we want to inform you of our current operations as we do our part to keep the ELISA Technologies family and our community safe.

Restaurants and food providers are essential during this time, and we will do what we can to keep you going. We also recognize that more people are eating at home and need the peace of mind that comes with our home test kits. Therefore, we want to keep you all aware of our current operations at ELISA Technologies. We are open and will be operating on a limited staff and reduced hours during the COVID-19 pandemic (including our municipal Stay at Home order), so please be patient as we process your orders and requests. We are still testing and shipping, however we ask that you be prepared for delays and postpone any nonessential testing so that we can accommodate food providers that are operating during this time. Anything needing immediate attention should be emailed to info@elisa-tek.com as we are monitoring that address around the clock, even if no one is available to take your call.

As a testing lab, we have learned to separate tasks by time and space, which is what our staff are now applying to themselves. We have separated our testing and production/shipping days to minimize risk to our employees while still meeting the needs of our customers. Instead of providing results and shipping on a daily basis, each of those activities will be limited to two days per week, with Wednesdays reserved for any catching up.

In short, there are two major changes you will notice form us:

1) We will probably not be available to answer each phone call personally.

2) We expect delays in shipping and testing of up to one week and it is unlikely that we will be able to accommodate rush testing.

We hope that you are all minimizing your direct contact with others and doing what you can to slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As we move toward the peak of this pandemic, either you or people you know will contract COVID-19 and we will work with you in any way we can to keep things running.

From all of us at ELISA Technologies, be healthy and stay safe.

June 30, 2020 update:

We continue to closely monitor the situation locally and in our state. We enacted restrictions on employee interactions and schedules in March, which we are maintaining through the recent and extreme surge in COVID-19 cases in our area. We are still shipping most orders within 1-2 days after they are received and completing testing with a turnaround time of one week. While we would like to get back to our standard same day shipping and 3 day testing turnaround times as quickly as possible, safety is our first priority and the situation has only become worse since March. We will let you know of any changes, and we hope everyone is doing everything they can to stay safe.

We urge everyone to wear masks, stay home when possible, and follow the CDC, state, and local guidelines.

August 13, 2021 update:

Florida is currently in its worse position since the pandemic began and cases continue to rise with schools opening around the state this week. Although we began efforts to ease some restrictions in July, that was cut short by the rising cases in our area. All staff are fully vaccinated, and all staff and visitors are still required to wear masks while in our facility, regardless of vaccination status. We strongly encourage everyone to follow the science and get vaccinated as soon as possible if you are not already. Our hospitals are at capacity and masks, vaccines, and social distancing are the simplest, safest, and most effective ways to reduce the burden on our communities.

Are you FSMA Compliant?

As food manufacturers adapt to the FDA’s new FSMA requirements, we stand ready to help. With internationally recognized meat speciation kits and gluten test kits in addition to being an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory for meat speciation, allergen, and drug testing, ELISA Technologies is prepared to assist in your compliance. Whether you perform in house testing or send samples to our accredited testing laboratory, our kits and services can be an integral part of your FSMA risk mitigation procedures.

MELISA-TEK validated for testing ruminant material in aqua feed by an interlaboratory study

Concerns over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) led to a ban on most processed animal proteins (PAPs) even feed materials. As these rules have shifted toward a more practical approach, non-ruminant PAPs are being allowed for inclusion in aqua feed. In Europe, much of this testing is done by PCR due to its sensitivity, although this sensitivity also can lead to false positive results. Immunological methods, such as ELISA, are also more sensitive then regulations require with at least as high accuracy as PCR. This interlaboratory study published in Food Chemistry investigated the use of our own MELISA-TEK as well as a competitor’s assay (Reveal) for use in PAP testing. The researchers found that both immunological methods were able to accurately detect ruminant material as low as 0.5% with the utmost accuracy. With European regulatory limits set at 2%, this study demonstrates that cost-effective immunological methods are important practical considerations for the determination of ruminant PAPs in aqua feed.

van Raamsdonk LW, Margry RJ, van Kaathoven RG, Bremer MG (2015) “Inter-laboratory validation study of two immunochemical methods for detection of processed ruminant proteins.” Food Chemistry. 185, 333-339. PMID:25952876