ABOUT SGL

Convenience you can trust…

Established over 95 years ago to manufacture and supply prepared culture media to the UK health service SOUTHERN GROUP LABORATORY (SGL) is now an independently owned media manufacturer that offers an extensive range of pre-poured bottled media, plated media, stains, reagents, and media for specialist applications across all sectors conducting Microbiology.

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OUR HISTORY

MAKING MEDIA FOR OVER
90 YEARS

Still a major supplier into clinical laboratories SGL now offers products into a diverse range of microbiology applications. Demand across all sectors for consistent, high quality prepared media has grown as companies look to enable more efficient workflow and minimise cost. SGL has developed in depth knowledge of each industryโ€™s specific needs, knowledge of standards and regulatory requirements, production requirements and other industry specific concerns in order to deliver high quality products in line with customer expectation. High tech automated production in controlled environments ensures product meets the exacting standards required in modern microbiology.

Two enduring values underpin continued development;
The Quality of our products and Passion for delivering the highest level of Service.

FACILITIES

SGL supplies a wide range of industries including pharmaceutical, cosmetic, water, food and confectionery companies both across the UK and internationally.

In our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, we have invested in equipment and facilities to meet the exacting standards of quality and customer service being demanded by todayโ€™s microbiologists. Both bottled media and pre-poured plates are manufactured in clean room environments under precisely-controlled conditions to ensure optimal performance, quality and maximum shelf life for all our media products.

Factors that affect media stability during manufacture, such as exposure to heat are tightly controlled; F0 (total heat applied) is measured for all autoclaved products. All pre poured plates are poured and dried in a class 100 air flow with carefully controlled humidity to ensure that plates are dry and sterile. Pre poured plates and bottled media are stored under carefully controlled conditions prior to dispatch, ensuring that our products when they reach the customer are of the highest quality available.

  • All activities are certified to ISO 9001 – Current edition,ย with quality control accredited by UKAS to EN ISO/ IEC 17025, ensuring consistent high quality products with continual improvement of processes and services in line with customer requirements
  • All production takes place in a clean room environment.ย Our poured plate production facility has clean-rooms validated to: ISO 14644-1 (Class 7), EU GMP (Grade C) and all poured plate manufacturing is on fully automated production lines
  • GMP and GLP techniques employed throughout all production and laboratory areas
  • Rigorous QC examination with certificates available online
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WHY USE SGL?

TIMEย 

Extensive range of Prepared Culture Media available from stock next day.

CONSISTENCY

Highly consistent Prepared Culture Media every time.

QUALITY

Analysis carried out for you by our UKAS ISO: 17025 accredited testing laboratory

COST

Proven more cost effective than making Culture Media in house.

SERVICE

Standard formulation or Custom Prepared Media it’s your choice

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QUALITY

QUALITY SYSTEM

Southern Group Laboratory products are manufactured at our Corby facility in compliance with our ISO 9001 Quality System. Every stage of manufacture is carefully controlled and documented to ensure the products are of consistently high quality. Representative samples of our products are QC tested in our on-site laboratory which is UKAS accredited to ISO 17025 and staffed by trained, experienced analysts.

The UKAS accredited QC tests are based on ISO 11133; methods have been validated and we have a programme of calibrations and operator checks to ensure the results are accurate.

Tests include the following:

All sterile media is tested for between 5 and 21 days at appropriate temperatures โ€“ usually 22 โ€“ 25oC, 35 โ€“ 37oC and 42 โ€“ 45oC to confirm sterility. In addition, we perform pH and gravimetric volume tests where these are relevant to the performance of the media.

Challenge testing of bottled and plated media to verify growth of target organisms or inhibition of non-target organisms meets pre-defined acceptance limits. This may be quantitative (where percentage recovery is specified) or qualitative.

Diluents and transport media are tested to ensure organism numbers remain constant over time and selective enrichment broths are tested to ensure they can recover the target organisms from mixed cultures of competing organisms.

Our product testing methods and specifications are derived from ISO 11133, Manufacturer’s recommendations or the relevant Pharmacopoeia to ensure each batch of media is fit for purpose. However, we can also customise testing to meet the needs of individual customers.

Certificates of analysis are designed for ease of use and to ensure all relevant information is available as quickly as possible. Certificates are available online.

If you have particular media or QC requirements, please contact us and set up your own formulation or testing specification.

Accreditation

SGL are certified to the current version of ISO 9001 for the Development, Manufacture and Supply of Microbiological Culture Media. The Quality management system is designed and written to ensure accuracy and traceability throughout the business.ย “The development, manufacture and supply of microbiological culture media and associated equipment”

DOWNLOAD ISO 9001 CERTIFICATE

SGL are an MHRA registered supplier and provide an extensive range of clinical reagents which are CE marked in compliance with the European In-Vitro Diagnostics Medical Devices Directive 98/79/EC.

SGL’s QC Laboratory is accredited by UKAS in compliance with ISO/IEC 17025 for culture media test methods as per the accreditation schedule. Methodology is based on ISO 11133 and has been developed to ensure every batch of media is challenged both physically and microbiologically to ensure consistent quality throughout.

CertificateISO 17025 ACCREDITATION SCHEDULE

FEATURED PRODUCTS

MICROBIOLOGY PRODUCT GUIDE

Download the SGL product guide for a representive example of the products offered by SGL. Can’t see what you need? SGL specialises in bespoke manufacture. Contact the team for a specific formulation, media fill or format

BESPOKE FORMULATION

As an independent media producer we have the ability to manufacture in small batches as well as producing batches of a bespoke nature. As such we can supply product with custom specified formulations, formats, packaging or QC requirements to order

VIEW CONTAINER GUIDE

Download the SGL container guide for SGL standard formats. Can’t see what you need? SGL specialises in bespoke manufacture. Contact the team for a special format or packaging requirement

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