We're pleased to announce that Mitch Foster has joined Agriyork 400 Ltd as our new Business Development Manager.  

 

Based at our Pocklington headquarters in Lockwood Court, East Yorkshire, Mitch brings valuable experience in international markets and a strong understanding of laboratory consumables and sampling solutions. 

 

With a background in B2B laboratory sales, Mitch will be focusing on expanding our partnerships across the food, dairy, pharmaceutical and drug testing sectors.  

 

Mitch has a broad range of skills in international markets, and his expertise will help us continue delivering the reliable, specialist service our customers depend on. 

 

If you'd like to discuss your laboratory consumables requirements or learn more about our aseptic sampling solutions, Mitch would be happy to hear from you. 

With this week being a Bank holiday weekend:........ 

 

 

Our sample vials are used in many critical applications. 

Food and water testing, dairy products, pharmaceutical studies, clinical trials. 

 

A wide range of applications and processes which do not stop for Bank Holidays. 

 

So what's the guy in the picture doing? 

 

Well that's Neil Jones, the MD and he loading boxes of vials into his car and taking them to a key customer. 

Normal carriage over the holiday period would have meant our customer's lab running out of vials. 

 

The "personal" touch meant we could act, and ensure the vials got delivered.. 

 

 

In Merseyside, more than 3 times more drug drivers arrested compared with alcohol cases. 

 

Merseyside Roads Policing Ch Insp Stuart McIver said people "still aren't getting the message". 

 

Between 1 December and 1 January, 360 people were arrested for drug drive related offences, 110 arrested for alcohol related offences and 38 arrested for failure to comply. 

 

"Driving under the influence – whether that's drugs or alcohol – is absolutely not acceptable," Ch Insp McIver said. 

 

"I feel frustrated that, clearly, some people still aren't getting the message." 

 

Operation Limit is a national campaign which runs each year from 1 December to January. 

 

Meanwhile in the south of the country: 

 

A total of 140 people were arrested for drug driving in December, nearly double the number of drink driving arrests during the same period. 

 

Figures published by Surrey Police as part a month-long winter crackdown on drink and drug driving reveal that officers made 196 arrests -140 for drug driving and 84 for drink driving. 

 

The overlap in numbers accounts for some people being arrested on suspicion of both offences. 

 

Surrey Police said these results show that drug driving is becoming more prominent than drink driving in the county. 

 

As part of Operation Limit, officers conducted increased patrols and set up random stop check sites along busy roads to provide a visible deterrent to offenders. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For many people driving is a part of their workday. 

Unfortunately, in the UK there has been a marked increase in illicit drug use. 

 

Cocaine and Cannabis are the two most common drugs, but of course, alcohol is frequently a factor too. 

Despite absorbing most of these additional costs, we have now had to increase our carriage charges. 

 

Effective, June 1st the following charges will apply: 

 

Full pallets to UK locations will be £70 each. 

We are more than 35 years ahead of the curve. 

 

From July 2024 EU Law, ( and you will already be seeing that UK manufacturers are already following this requirement. ) 

States: 

 

Member States shall ensure that single-use plastic products listed in Part C of the Annex that have caps and lids made of plastic may be placed on the market only if the caps and lids remain attached to the containers during the products’ intended use stage. 

 

Product design requirements 

• Tethered caps and lids for all beverage containers and bottles up to 3 litres, 5 years after the entry into force of the directive (to be applied 5 years after the entry into force of the Directive). 

 

UK manufacturers are following this directive in order to harmonise their production lines. ( and make their products easier to recycle ) 

 

Since 1987, Agriyork400 Ltd have been supplying their plastic vials with attached lids. 

When your sample vial contains important material use a snap seal design from Agriyork400. 

 

Buy from Agriyork400 and help save the planet. 

 

 

All our vials have attached lids. 

The vials are aseptic by manufacture, and come with a variety of seals. 

SNAP, LOCK, and CUSTODY.  

Different styles for different applications. 

 

What does "Aseptic by manufacture" mean? 

Our vials are produced from a single slug of polypropylene. 

In a hot injection moulding process, the attached lid and the body of the vial are formed from this slug of plastic. 

The vials leave the mould with the lid attached. 

 

This advantage is not possible with a detached lid. 

Also, in the lab the detached lid offers the potential for contamination as the lid has to held or laid on a surface. 

 

Please contact us to discuss which vial is best suited to your application. 

Agriyork400 Ltd follow best practices to protect our suppliers and customers from internet fraud and scams. 

Our finance manager J. Jennings told the group: 

 

"Internet fraud, especially invoice scams are becoming more prevalent in today's business world. We employ rigorous checks to ensure all banking transactions are protected for all our clients." 

Sterile or Aseptic? Understanding the Difference 

 

 

Ensuring the quality and safety of dairy and food products is the number one priority of processors, explaining why questions surrounding sterile or aseptic frequently enter into the conversation, especially when discussing equipment cleanliness and sampling or testing techniques. While the words sterile and aseptic are often used interchangeably, they are not, in fact, interchangeable. Understanding the difference is important to ensure favourable outcomes in dairy and food processing, sample collection, and laboratory testing. 

 

 

In general, sterile applies to equipment and environments. It is the concept of having or using equipment that is totally germ-free. To reach this level of cleanliness, equipment must be cleaned and sanitized using specialized procedures, sterilized using validated techniques in which the ability to kill all living organisms has been tested and verified, supplied in special packaging designed to ensure maintained sterility during storage and shipping, and handled in special ways. 

In medicine, for example, sterile equipment and supplies are vital to prevent contamination and infection during surgery. Similarly, sterile needles are required so patients are not infected from inoculations or during a blood draw. While the circumstances are, of course, different, the concept is the same in dairy and food processing. 

When sampling and testing equipment are introduced to a process and come into contact with food, they should be sterile so there is no danger of introducing harmful bacteria or other microbes. This attention to sterility plays a critical role in upholding the quality, shelf stability, and safety of dairy and other food products and is vital for making sure samples collected from the product are free from exogenous contamination. 

 

 

Aseptic is a term that is generally applied to techniques that keep equipment or an environment sterile. Aseptic techniques are designed to prevent the introduction or transfer of microorganisms to an environment. In other words, they keep sterile things sterile. 

 

In a dairy or liquid food processing environment, aseptic sampling technique is critical to control contamination of either the collected samples or the food product being sampled. Aseptic techniques are required for inserting sterile sampling equipment into the production line and for collecting samples through sterile equipment. If aseptic technique is not followed, the positive effect of sterile sampling equipment is lost, collected samples may be inaccurate or become contaminated, test results will be untrustworthy, and harmful organisms may be added to products being sampled. 

 

Aseptic Sampling Is Critical to Testing Accuracy 

 

Dairy and food industries are vulnerable to a multitude of microbial contaminants that can compromise the quality and safety of their products. As such, the importance of proper sampling technique cannot be overemphasized. Aseptic sampling through sterile sampling equipment is critical to ensure food safety, product quality, and informed decision-making.