Technological Solutions Limited (TSL) is improving its accreditation certifications as the company eyes greater profitability.

Speaking at TSL’s awards luncheon recently, Chairman Dr Andre Gordon said, “TSL CSI recently completed being re-accredited by ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) as the only certification body in the region with a license to accredit firm to Safe Quality Food (SQF).”

TSL Laboratory has also just successfully completed re-accreditation to 1SO 17025 by the American (A2LA), the only such laboratory in the Caribbean. Accreditation by A2LA, with over 30,000 acc labs give TSL access to unparalled resources, networks and partnerships with other A2LA accred companies, such as bioMérieux and its subsidiary, IS.

But that’s not all, Gordon disclosed, “we are announcing today a partnership with JMEA through a $1.5-million MSME Support Programme for JMEA MSME members. These JMEA members selected by the organization will be able to access any of our services in accordance with what is agreed with the JMEA.”

The TSL group of companies, which is celebrating 25 years of operations, offers a comprehensive range of technical services to support the productive and hospitality sectors in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

TSL now has six operating locations across Jamaica and has been awarded a $22.5-million contract by IICA, along with its subsidiary TTSL, to assist 12 companies across 10 countries in the Caribbean improve their food safety.

“We have extended our services across the region and beyond, and our science-based technical support to the food service and hospitality sectors in the early 2000s. We formally entered the health and wellness arena in the mid-2000s with extensive training in public health-focused food safety, as well as services in environmental health and safety, occupational health and safety and water quality and safety,” Gordon stated.

“A critical role that TSL has, and continues to, play is building capacity across the region to support the region sectors in which it works,” the chairman noted.

“We realise that we can’t do this alone and so are committed to sharing our knowledge with scientists and industry practitioners across the region and, indeed, across the world. As such, we have documented many of our approaches in overcoming trade and technical challenges in a series of books. The most recent of these, which came out during the pandemic is Food Safety and Quality Systems in Developing Countries has 14 authors including five TSL team members and our international partners, including Deb DeVlieger,” he continued.

Within the next three to four months TSL will complete accreditation by A2LA of its Diagnostic Laboratories to ISO 15189:2012 for SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, among other tests. This will make TSL the only such accredited laboratory in Jamaica and the Caribbean. As part of its COVID-19 diagnostic services, TSL has collected a large amount of information on the pandemic, the apparent efficacy of various vaccines, break through infections and re-infections and trends for the pandemic across two years — 2020 to 2022.

“We have used this as part of the scientific validation of our methodology, which we intend to publish internationally and also to guide companies in managing their risk and keeping their operations open during the pandemic. TSL intends to share this information publicly, over time,” said Gordon.