SGS Certified for ISTA Standard 20 Insulated Shipping Container Testing

NEW YORK, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SGS North America Inc. announced today that it has been certified to conduct thermal testing on insulated shipping containers used for transporting temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals in accordance with the new International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) Standard 20 certification/testing procedures and Standard 7E Thermal Profiles.

With the certification, insulated shipping container manufacturers can now engage SGS to:

• Measure their products' thermal performance under Standard 20 guidelines, which standardize global performance testing for insulated shipping containers.
• Assess each package's adherence to the new Standard 7E profiles, which reflect day/night and latitudinal temperature exposures in trucks, transit storage facilities and air cargo spaces as determined in a three-year ISTA shipping lane study.
• Submit results to ISTA to certify that the package conforms to testing under Standard 20 using the Standard 7E profiles, enabling certified packages to carry the ISTA 7E Thermal Certification Mark.

Packages that receive the ISTA 7E Thermal Certification Mark are expected to have a competitive advantage because the mark will validate the container's performance, eliminating the need for manufacturers in sectors such as pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, medical and food to invest time and money in evaluating insulated packages themselves.

Testing will take place at SGS's flagship U.S. laboratory in Fairfield, N.J., which has passed an on-site audit by a Certified ISTA Thermal Transport Lab Auditor as required under Standard 20. SGS has also met the standard's Certified Thermal Professional training requirements and is equipped to provide documentation of testing protocols, data packages and reports in the required Standard 20 format.

"For FDA-regulated organizations like pharmaceutical manufacturers, proof of container performance is critical for ensuring that certain products will be maintained in acceptable temperature ranges throughout the supply chain. ISTA Standard 20 provides a common global methodology for testing that performance for the first time, including standard testing profiles and protocols," said Jason Sherrier, Packaging and Materials Lab Manager of SGS North America Inc.

"With this certification, SGS can help package manufacturers substantiate their container performance, provide apples-to-apples performance comparisons against the competition based on each package's 7E rating, and shorten the sales cycle by presenting ISTA-pre-qualified packages that free customers of lengthy evaluation procedures."

SGS's new ISTA Standard 20 certification is an expansion of the company's wide-ranging packaging testing services, including a global program to ensure packaging integrity for medical devices and pharmaceutical products. That program offers one-stop testing of product containers, secondary packaging and transit packaging to evaluate the product protection capabilities, durability and environmental sustainability of all package components.  

SGS is exhibiting in Booth #3050 at the EastPack 2011 conference running June 7-9 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. More information about SGS package testing services is available by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-777-TEST.

About SGS Consumer Testing Services

SGS Consumer Testing Services, a division of the SGS Group, is the world's leading verification, testing and certification company. The company's comprehensive testing, product inspection, process assessment and technical services cover the entire supply chain from product development to retailing for electrical products, wireless products, soft line products, hard line products and food products. SGS' global network and expertise provide a single consolidated source that can help manufacturers, suppliers and retailers reduce risk, improve efficiency and product quality, and ensure compliance to both national and international standards. Parent company SGS Group has more than 64,000 employees and over 1,250 offices and laboratories in 140 countries. For more information about Consumer Testing Services, visit www.us.sgs.com/cts  

SOURCE SGS North America Inc.