With the evolution in tandem-mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography, the LCMS platform has become the workhorse of analytical chemistry, with applications ranging from studying the outer space to exploring the building blocks of life. Shimadzu’s passion for innovation has led to ground-breaking developments and breakthrough research in MS technology. As a leading MS technology and service provider, we are proud to be a part of an amazing community of passionate MS researchers. In this new column, High-5, we bring to you exclusive interviews with leading MS Scientists and our esteemed customers, on their workflows and the road ahead for MS.
Mr. Vilas Shinde, hailing from a traditional farming dependent family, sought to extend the horizons of farming by experimenting in his own limited fields. Yearning to gain knowledge, Mr. Shinde accomplished immense understanding as First class with Distinction in M.Tech (Agriculture Engg.) from MPKV Rahuri, 1998 and initiated career with his own enterprise. Deeply inspired by the impact of Amul & Dr. Kurien, after varied agricultural experiments, he fulfilled his entrepreneurial dreams. This was how ‘Sahyadri Farmers Producer Company Limited’ was established, along with an informal group of 10 farmers back in 2010. While it was driven with the vision of bridging the gap between urban and rural communities, the now expanded group continues to create crop specific value chains owned by farmers.
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What is your main field of research?
Sahyadri Farmers Producer Company Limited is India’s leading Fruits & Vegetables farmer collective of over 10,000+ marginal farmers. Being India’s largest Grape Exporter to European market, we efficiently export to 42 countries worldwide. Along with grapes, Sahyadri Farms also hosts the nation’s largest grower & Processor of Tomato. While processing almost 40% of Kissan Ketchup for HUL, our credibility speaks with acquisition of 21 National & International Certifications for food quality & safety.
Apart from the on-field presence, it is also one of the most reliable and promising E-commerce companies that serves daily essentials with fresh quality. Currently the services are operational in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, and shall expand shortly. Apart from the base of 1,00,000+ happy customers who are regularly ordering online from us, we also have 13 well-equipped retail stores in Mumbai, Pune & Nashik. All in all, we serve approx. 5000+ customers per day & strive to deliver the best products as we grow each passing day. Committed for customer’s delightment, we have decided to set up world-class pesticides residues, nutrition, soil/water testing labs at the facility of Sahyadri Farms. Being the one of its kind to set up such advanced labs, all of it was done to provide safe & traceable food to the consumers.
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What are the current trends with regard to the use of LC-MS/MS systems in your industry?
LC-MS/MS have been a boon to the pharma industry and it have had large impact on the drug development of new pharmaceutical products, Impurities profiles, Novel residues, food & beverages in the past decades. Continuous improvements in mass spectrometry have resulted in wider applications in the pharmaceutical field such as analysis of mutagen, nitrosamines, extractable & leachable, structure elucidation during drug development, stability study and release testing.
Pharmaceutical industry is among the key end-user of LC-MS/MS due to stringent regulatory guidelines for drug development and safety.
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How are you utilizing the Shimadzu LC-MS/MS System for your day-to-day activities?
Our LC-MS/MS system is used for analysis of Pesticide residues into fruits and vegetables as well as processed products manufactured at our facility. We are committed to providing tested safe products to our customers and that target is achieved due to high throughput Shimadzu LCMS-8045 system. Educating our customers by providing them with the test reports of fruits and vegetables purchased from our stores really helping to build sense of trust with our brand.
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What are your expectations from Mass Spectrometer technology in the future?
Fruits and vegetable production these days’ demand extensive use of pesticides to have better quality production and at the same time we need to address challenge to provide safe food to Mankind. Responsible pesticides usage crop protection protocol development is need of the time and this technology offers an edge to deal with such challenges.
Mass spectrometer is the gold standard for determining pesticides residues in fruits and vegetables; so it has bigger role to play in agriculture and allied activities. Determining Pre Harvest Interval for a pesticide so that it’s usage won’t have any residues at the time harvest is the key to produce safe farm produce. With such technology we are 100% confident to achieve our goal of making farming a PROFITABLE & SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS for all our farmers in all circumstances and providing SAFE, HEALTHY, AFFORDABLE – FARM PRODUCE and value added products to our consumers whilst CARING for the environment, EMPOWERING our stakeholders and STRENGTHENING the economy.
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Please share your experiences on support and service from Spinco Biotech?
Spinco is an institution in itself & don’t need any authentication from the industry as all are well-versed with their support system. Sahyadri Farms has always been blessed to have their quality service with faster turnaround time, they strive hard to deliver the optimum solution in terms of application as well as hardware related services, their after sales service is the best in the industry & you can blindly vouch for their services I take this opportunity to thank them on behalf of Team Sahyadri Farms & wish them best for all their future endeavours.
