For us, the testing process is as important as the previous samples management and the specification of the necessary performance.

Before making a quality control, it is very important to define its aims, since they constitute the main factors to consider, to determine which legislation type to apply, the position of the sampling place, the frequency, the used periods and procedures, the sample transport and reception and the analytical necessities.

Therefore the careful specification of the requirements in the previous analytical phase (pre-analytical) is essential in the quality evaluation.

The process begins with the client’s request. We facilitate the necessary information and advising to the client (technical or legal) to firm up the most suitable answer to his necessities.

This is the beginning of a process in which, until the sample reception in the laboratory, one single responsible speaker will serve the customer.

Once specified the service necessities and confirmed our capacity to service the request, we emit an offer, in which all the necessary information is included (parameters to perform, prices, type of the necessary containers, the necessary sample volume, terms, etc.).
At this point we will take care of the sampling. In order to get data of suitable exactitude, it’s essential to pay special attention to the good sampling conditions and the sampling systems.

To make the task easier and to anticipate a correct sampling and its suitable conservation, LABAQUA facilitates sampling logistic support; either our technicians can do the sampling, or we can provide the client with exclusive containers specially prepared for each analysis type.
Every laboratory can establish a sampling schedule. The design of a sampling schedule forces to define it previously and hereby it avoids errors, it allows the reproducibility of situations and helps in the final quality of the results.

An inadequate sampling process or inadequate manipulation can lead on to an erroneous result. For that reason it is so important to establish the safekeeping chain, through this, the way that a sample covers is reproduced step by step and all the signatures of the people in charge of the sample are registered at each time.

But we also facilitate, when the conditions allow it or recommend it, ways and means so that the client can do the sampling having the necessary material and instructions. Thus, for example, for the accomplishment of Complete Domestic Water Analysis (Real Decree 140/2003) we provide the client with the necessary containers for the correct sampling, without additional costs and we accept all the transport expenses.

We have designed a kit for complete domestic water analysis (KIAC) containing exclusive containers adapted specially for these analysis (each box pertains to a single sample), that allows the immediate processing of each sample without manipulations that may alter the quality.

Once the samples arrive at the laboratory the reception process of the samples begins.

There must be a minimum of criteria for a sample reception (already defined in the offer) and these are more technical criteria that have to be fulfilled on the part of the client. The laboratory must have a control in the sample reception process with the aim to approach with guarantee the analytical phase (types of containers, date of sampling and reception, sample volumes, preservation state and breakages, etc.).

The laboratory has clear actions for the reception, the manipulation, the storage or the destruction of the samples, with the intention to protect the sample integrity and the interests of the laboratory and the client.

Once the samples have been received, the samples are identified and labelled in a simple way that doesn’t give any rise to errors. This system has a double function: on one hand, to identify the sample during the whole analytical process and to serve as reference in all the documentations or registries; and on the other hand, to maintain the sample anonymous for the analyst or any visit to the laboratory.

As far as it concerns the degradation of the samples we consider very much the environmental conditions (control of Tª, humidity), control of surfaces and air in certain microbiology zones, as well as the related to labour security.