JLA Argentina

JLA Argentina began in 1997 as a part of JLA. Like the other member companies, JLA Argentina provides services in the food industry ranging from pre-production to marketing of finished product. Our Integral Quality System (ISO 17025 accredited) and our experienced staff of professionals work together in modern laboratories to make a total analysis of each product.

We cover a broad range of controls: microbiological, nutritional quality, GMO, mycotoxins, pesticide residue and others. We provide whatever is specified by our clients. To accomplish this, we make use of the most modern equipment available. Our staff provides strategic systems of quality assurance in food safety in addition to technical support and consulting in the selection of food and ingredients for businesses around the world.

JLA Argentina, S.A., as well as all JLA member companies, are well known for the integrity, discretion, quality of work and superior service we deliver to our clients.

Strategic Services

Identity Preserved

Certification of Identity in animal and vegetal production.

Traceability is a requirement for meat exports, and it is a marked trend for all the export agroproducts.
It is not possible to insure a determined variety, location of origin or any special treatment by analyzing only the finished product. That is why the documentation to assure the quality of an agroproduct must begin with the control of raw materials, and this procedure must be followed all along the process until the final conditioning.

“Farm to Fork” and other slogans are becoming more and more popular in the market. JLA certifies Identity Preserved and presents together with the final analysis of the plot all the documentation collected along the process. This is a work in-group in which all the actors participate, everyone performing its own role in an absolutely impartial and independent way but collaborating with the others.

Supplier Qualifications/Vendor Assurances

For the qualification of plants, a checklist designed by JLA is used to rate the design of the facilities, its pest control, its staff training, and their degree of documentation. In addition to the numerical grade (1-100), JLA includes a report with all details noted, area by area. In this report we suggest improvement measures for short, medium, and long-term quality assurance.

We also offer consulting in implementing Quality Systems (GMP [Good Manufacturing Practices]; HACCP [Hazard Analytical Critical Control Point], etc.

Food ingredient processing plants should work under the same quality and security specifications as the plants who manufacture the finished product. Different commercial brands commonly offer a selection of suppliers, but the real question is how to distinguish among them which ones will provide the best quality.

JLA audits and can qualify food-processing plants regarding Food Safety.

Our reports are internationally recognized by important clients. It is not always the buyer who requests an audit; sometimes an exporter will use this process to evaluate his progress or to demonstrate for potential buyers the quality of his operation.

Peanut

JLA has wide expertise in evaluating compliance with the requirements of different buyers in Europe and the USA – both on governmental and various buyer specifications.

We can also advise in the interpretation of regulations, sample methods, and aflatoxin analyses and other official regulations for the European Union and USDA. These evaluations are for commercial uses of peanuts.

Value-added foods

These services include Preserved Identity Certification, GMO-free analyses with traceability within the company or by JLA, and pesticide residues in vegetable or animal food products.

JLA certificates have international prestige and are considered valid documentation for many manufacturing plants in Europe and the USA. With a JLA certificate, these plants do not require any other additional analyses when the product reaches its destination or before starting the manufacturing process.

Water Quality Control

JLA offers water quality control for human consumption in factories and offices. We belong to the SENASA laboratory network for water.

Our experience covers not only the control of water distribution in factories or production facilities, but also to municipal control for potable water supply and the control and treatment of sewage.

Brand Management

Labeling with your own brand a product processed by a third party can be a dangerous risk. JLA can provide confidence to companies by adding our control logo on all the labels of the products coming from third party plants audited by JLA staff and for which we take random control samples of the finished product.

Control in Processing Lines and Storage

JLA audits processing lines and storage, including sanitary and stock controls.

Quality is dependent on the raw material, but a good raw material can go bad or alter during processing, shipping, or storage due to different causes; for instance it could be contaminated by accident or by ignorance.

JLA has experience in process quality control, storage control, and logistics systems, including personnel with experience in the control of food stock for Banks and Warranty companies.

Food Analysis Services

Consumers are becoming more demanding when it comes to selecting a product. The brand prestige, nutritional factors, fat and/or cholesterol percentages, quantity of vitamins and minerals, fats quality, and many others are taken into account before choosing a product.

Foods with special health attributes are at a premium, and have found popularity among consumers from developed countries. In Mercosur, this is already a strong trend. Antioxidants capability, calcium and other minerals, vitamins, and fiber – you name it and it is on the label.

Beyond that, many products are subjected to analyses for toxins and other biological risks, chemical analyses (like pesticide or antibiotic residues or heavy metals), microbiological analyses (like bacteria, fungi, and yeast count, and identification of pathogens).

Sensory Analysis

JLA is a specialist in sensory analysis of peanuts in many different forms: raw, cooked, paste, and butter.

We depend on a team of six people trained by professionals from the USA who specialize in peanuts. The main European buyers approve our methods.

Label Control

We offer controls for compliance with label parameters as is required by pertinent sanitary authorities and/or the International Food Codex.

Manufacturers or packers: Do your products have any special qualities worth highlighting? Find out and consider some different alternatives. One of our labs in the USA specializes in new product development and the use of food additives.

Quality Certification

For manufacturers and packers: Get a certificate on any qualified lot for compliance with a given parameter that makes your product stand out by demonstrating its superior quality.

For consumers and manufacturers: tests for the control of:

• Pesticide Residues
• Presence of Genetically Modified events (GMO) by PCR. Our laboratory is equipped with PCR for the detection of genetically modified organisms and with a Gas Chromatograph with specific detectors for pesticide residues ISO 17025 Accredited.
• Mycotoxins ISO 17025 ACCREDITED
• Levels and quality of different nutrients.
• Fatty acid profile. (Oleic to Linoleic ratio).
• Microbiological controls, identification and quantification of fungi and bacteria.

Balanced Foodstuffs – Forage

Many of the fluctuations of productivity in small and large animal farms have to do with feeding. That is why we offer control of the manufacture of balanced foodstuffs with regard to homogeneity, handling and control of raw materials, mycotoxins ISO 17025 Accredited, pesticide residues ISO 17025 Accredited, insufficient dispersion of Antitrypsin in soy products, mineral balance, etc.

Internal Quality Assurance

The fact of knowing that the quality of an exported lot complies with all the specifications saves not only money, but also many worries.

GIRBIS®: the J. Leek Associates group has adopted this acronym to show the spirit of our service: Getting it Right Before it Ships®.  By this we mean that we want to do everything we can to make sure your product meets all specifications before it is shipped.  By doing so, many problems and logistic charges are avoided.

For a customer to accept a certificate as valid, he has to trust the company that issues it.  It often takes years to develop this level of trust, but only a few mistakes to lose it.  That is why the entire group is very careful as to what products merit JLA certification.  We always include auditing the sampling, the preparation, and the analytical methods used.  We respect our clients’ directives, but always within the regulatory framework of the applicable authorities.

Consulting Services

Our services range from advising farmers on the preparation of land for the evaluation of agrochemical efficacy, to the performance of non-irrigated and irrigated seeds, to the logistics of exporting. Because our consultation covers such a broad range of issues, the producer or industry can expand their views and possibilities for commerce or research, depending on our know-how as a source.

As we work together with our parent company, we are able to shorten the distance between the requirements of the most significant food customers in the world and local producers. We do this by the advice we provide to help producers meet consumer standards, the evaluation and interpretation of the different specifications, and the training to align the criteria of the production laboratories with those of the purchasing client.

Our participation also includes the legal design of the labels for the finished product destined for the USA market and the paperwork related to registration with the FDA.

Our central office is located in General Cabrera, province of Córdoba. This location is a modern building covering more than 2000 square meters in which is housed our administration and six laboratories strategically distributed according to the different analyses that are conducted there:

• Antibiotic and other residues by HPLC double mass
• Gas Chromatography (pesticides, fatty acids profile, etc.)
• Mycotoxins by HPLC
• Chemical Analyses
• Microbiological Analyses
• PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) for GMO detection

Our second facility in Alejandro Roca has two laboratories for:

• Lab for Grains and Seeds
• Mycotoxins by HPLC

JLA Argentina has more than 30 regular employees, each professionally capable in his or her specific function: Technicians, Inspectors and Auditors, Lab Professionals, Administrators, etc. Additionally we have extra personnel for periods of heavier workload.

All of these people acknowledge and subscribe to our Principles and Values. You will find in each JLA member someone who is ready to listen and who seeks to understand your concerns and to find solutions for them. It is no ordinary group of people, but an integrated and inter-related team who communicate together, across different disciplines and perspectives, to find the most effective and convenient solution for each case. Our motto is, By working together, it can be done!

Knowing what the most significant consumers in Europe and the USA need allows us to work in close association with the peanut producers in Argentina, selecting businesses around the world, and suggesting the best opportunities for manufacturing and ingredient supply.

To view the scope of our laboratories’ ISO 17025 accreditations, please click on the following link:

• http://www.oaa.org.ar/200504/DataFile.asp?FileID=2179

For specific Member Company certifications, please click on the Awards and Certifications Page.