LABSERVE Analytical Services | Services

Labserve, along with its business partners, offers extensive testing, locally and internationally to provide you with results on the following analyses:

Soil

Leaf

Fruit

Drinking Water

Irrigation Water

Waste Water

Global Gap Water

Growing Medium & Compost

Microbiology

Pesticide Residue (MRL's)

Fungicide Testing (Phosphonates, Dithiocarbamates)

Plant Growth Regulator Testing (Ethephon)

Herbicide Testing (Glyphosate)

Hand & Surface Swabs(QC)

Should you require an analysis not listed above, please feel free to contact us. Enquire about bulk sample discounts, sampling guidelines, additional information, or for your custom quotation.

MORE ABOUT OUR SERVICES

WATER

Water is life… we drink it, bathe in it, cook with it, and water our crops with it. The only way to ensure your water is clean and safe is to have it tested. Routine monitoring and testing is vital to ensure quality and safety. The earlier a problem is detected, the sooner it can be treated and rectified. Labserve provides clients with accurate analytical data that can be compared to previous months’/years’ results, accurately showing the changes in your water quality. We offer affordable routine tests to an array of companies including; government organizations, municipalities, factories, processing plants, packhouses, hotels and lodges, farmers, and many more.

SOIL AND GROWING MEDIUM

Labserve understands the importance of farming in South Africa. Knowledge of your soil and growing media is fundamental to achieving optimal growth of plants in a wide range of environments. Soils quality affects plant health. Regular testing assists the farmer in understanding their lands, crops and available nutrients so that they can effectively fertilise and increase yield and profitability. By tracking the exact amount of nutrients, a farmer can adjust fertilization in accordance to their soil and crop requirements.

LEAF

While soil testing identifies the nutrients offered to the plants, leaf analysis identifies how well the plants utilised the soil and applied nutrients. Leaf analysis enables us to directly measure the nutritional status of trees. The results can then be compared with known standards to determine whether the tissue contains excessively high or low concentrations of critical macro- and micro-nutrient elements. The nutrient supply can then be adjusted to bring the levels of the mineral nutrients in the tissue back to within acceptable limits. Regular testing assists the farmer in understanding their lands, crops and available nutrients so that they can effectively fertilise and increase yield and profitability. By tracking the exact amount of nutrients, a farmer can adjust fertilization in accordance to their soil and crop requirements.

MRL & DITHIOCARBAMATES

Most countries have established Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for pesticides used in the control of pest and diseases not only to safeguard consumer health but also to minimize the presence of these residues in the environment. The pesticide residue found in agricultural commodity may not exceed the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL).

The class of dithiocarbamate fungicides (DTCs) is widely used in agriculture. They are non-systemic and both the formulation and their break-down products typically remain at the site of application. DTCs are characterized by a broad spectrum of activity against various plant pathogens, low acute mammal toxicity, and low production costs. The dithiocarbamate moiety is highly reactive: it readily chelates most heavy metals, reacts with sulfhydryl groups of proteins, rendering itself neurotoxic, teratogenic, and cytotoxic.

Managing chemical residues is essential. Growers are responsible for ensuring that chemicals are used correctly to minimise any chance of unacceptable chemical residues occurring. Let Labserve assist you with analytical chemical testing to detect unacceptable chemical residues in produce.

ENVIRONMENTAL

The importance of environmental testing is for the protection of the environment and people. If hazardous waste is present it could present potentially dangerous ramifications causing irreparable damage. To protect the health and safety of people and the environment regulations are becoming ever more stringent. There is much awareness surrounding the health effects of environmental contamination. Labserve can assist clients that are concerned with potential contaminants.

TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) is a large family of chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil and are used to make petroleum products. These can contaminate the environment. Due to there being so many different chemicals in crude oil and in other petroleum products, it is not practical to measure each one separately. However, it is useful to measure the total amount of TPH. Some chemicals that may be found in TPH are mineral oils, benzene, hexane, jet fuels, toluene, xylenes, naphthalene, and fluorene, as well as other petroleum products and components.

BTEX, comprising of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene are volatile organic compounds. The BTEX suite has grown in popularity, as they are straightforward to monitor together, and provide a well-rounded picture of volatile organic compounds and are present in most urban areas. BTEX are monitored for both ambient applications and industrial health and safety applications.

TCLP(Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure) is a chemical analysis process used to determine whether there are hazardous elements present in waste. The test involves a simulation of leaching through a landfill and can provide a rating that can prove if the waste is dangerous to the environment or not.