Record Year for Minerva Scientific – A Tentamus Company!

Minerva Scientific – A Tentamus Company is a Food and Feed testing laboratory established in 2001, offering a wide range of ISO 17025 accredited tests ideal for due diligence-based surveillance testing, pertinent to UK and EU legislative requirements. Notably, our team at Minerva Scientific are the leading experts in Honey testing in the UK.

In 2024, we experienced over a 30% increase in demand for our testing services — helping more businesses stay compliant and ensuring consumers receive the highest quality products.

Here’s how we maintain exceptional service standards, even as demand for our testing services continues to grow:

1. Investment in Instrumentation

The NUT01 test — used for the determination of simple sugars in honey via ion chromatography with electrochemical detection — saw the highest demand in 2024. This test has been included in Minerva’s ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation schedule (No. 2504, issued by UKAS) since 2012. To maintain our position at the forefront of analytical innovation, Minerva has invested in a state-of-the-art Dionex Integrion High-Pressure Ion Chromatography (HPIC) system, equipped with a Dionex AS-AP autosampler.

This additional system increased on-site instrument capacity for sugar profile analysis, enabling Minerva to offer faster turnaround times for more samples.

2. Team Improvement

Early 2024 saw an organisational change, with the promotion of Kelly Beardsley and Hannah Tricklebank to the roles of Laboratory Manager and Deputy, respectively. These two professionals, with a combined experience of >30 years at Minerva, have brought a wealth of knowledge to the roles and have led Minerva through the busiest, most successful year in the last decade.

3. Facilities

In 2024, Minerva repurposed an existing laboratory into a dedicated metals analysis facility. Throughout the year, our Development Scientist, Dr. Benjamin Fryer — an expert in ICP-MS* — has been developing advanced methods for heavy metal analysis. Utilising microwave digestion and our *Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrophotometer, Dr. Fryer has expanded testing capabilities to include a broader range of food matrices. Fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals, herbs, teas, and spices are among the matrices currently undergoing validation for rollout in 2025, further enhancing the Tentamus Group’s testing portfolio in the UK.

Please feel free to reach out for more information about Minerva Scientific – A Tentamus Company services via our contact form!