Check and Validate Your Ingredients with Mat-Link™
A brand new tool from Format Solutions gives users the necessary assurance that ingredient analysis updates meet the required quality standards before they enter formulation.
The latest offering, Mat-Link™, is a subscription based add-on for current Brill Formulation® customers that allows data to be reviewed and adjusted before it enters into the system.
It means ingredient information can now be checked and verified in a completely safe environment rather than overwriting existing data or being prematurely imported and ending up in production – which could prove a costly mistake for a feed manufacturer.
“Mat-Link allows our customers to be proactive rather than reactive and that should make the life of a formulator, nutritionist, or quality team a little smoother,” says Annette Lundeen, Head of Product.
“Used right, Mat-Link helps a user ensure they’re always bringing the right data into their system,” she adds. “It allows them to start thinking about its potential impact and question whether everything is correct before it’s too late. This helps ensure that the product they’re shipping out remains consistent and they continue to deliver the nutritional quality that they're targeting.”
The new software has been designed for formulators, by formulators to optimize processes and save both time and effort, while reducing the likelihood of errors.
Companies typically carry out a series of nutritional analysis tests at their in-house laboratories or through a third party’s facility so they can better understand the quality of ingredients that are going into their animal feed recipes. These usually rely on sophisticated near infrared scanning technology, which scans a ground sample of the material and assesses it in terms of oil, protein, and fiber.
This testing phase not only checks that the quality of the product is as expected, but the information can also be used to review formulas and make sure recipes are providing the required nutritional benefits to the animals.
With Mat-Link, those test results can now be gathered, reviewed, and then seamlessly imported into the Brill Formulation® system.
Previously, users may have used their own Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) or relied on spreadsheets to collect and review the results of their samples, manually inputting data – which obviously comes with certain risk. The new Mat-Link software helps automate the entire process, minimizing mistakes and improving efficiency.
For greater convenience, multiple data files can be reviewed and processed at once rather than individually. For example, a company with several factories may have test results from different sources, or that are taken on different days.
The software also allows close integration with partners, allowing feed mills to easily connect with suppliers.
“As with any system, the data you put in drives the quality of the data you get out,” says Ian Mealey, Product Marketing Director – Formulation. “Mat-Link is designed to be the bridge between quality control services and the formulation system.”
Format Solutions’ Mat-Link is currently available for Brill Formulation® users but there are also plans to roll it out to the New Century™ and next generation Ara™ formulation systems.
“Our plan is to make it compatible with all of our formulation tools later this summer,” says Lundeen. “We’ve got quite a few enhancements planned for those versions as well, including more analytics capabilities and reporting features.”
To find out more about Mat-Link, visit www.formatsolutions.com/mat-link/.
