No, you do not. You may read any content or post a quote request on our website without having to register. Of course, you will need to supply your contact details so that we can mail you an answer.
FERMENTEK is ISO 9001 certified
Our products are intended for the research market to be used as reference material by analytical laboratories, or by other manufacturers in production of their own non GMP products. Therefore, GMP certification is not required in our case
No. In our case, we do not need it. The regulations and state inspection in environmental protection is so demanding in Israel (beyond the requirements of ISO 14001) that we believe it is enough to comply with the Israeli regulations and demands to be on the safe side. Air pollution is continuously monitored by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, and wastewater is continuously monitored by city authorities
ISO 17034 is intended to be used as part of the general quality assurance procedures of the reference material producer and covers general requirements for the competence of reference material including certified reference material products.
Input from our clients and distributors is particularly important. Any enquiry regarding substances not currently in our catalog may initiate a process of gathering information and making decisions. We encourage our clients and clients-to-be, to ask questions and to make product suggestions.
Besides, we ardently follow scientific publications. Thus, we learn about the current research trends and about the reagents and chemical tools which are in use.
The outcome of the R&D work is a well-defined manufacturing method, and quality control methods. We validate the manufacturing method by repeating it several times (the number of repeats changes according to its complexity), and we validate the identity of the product by conducting certain tests in independent laboratories. These tests include NMR spectrum, Mass spectrum, and Elemental analysis, which are not included in our routine in-house testing repertoire.
No. Our products are intended to be used in laboratories or in manufacturing sites. However, some of these products produced by other manufacturers may indeed be considered food additives, but we only sell for use in biological, pharmaceutical, or other research or to establish analytical standards in laboratories. It is explicitly forbidden to use them for any human or veterinary purposes.
No. We sell only to research, analytical laboratories or to manufacturers. It is explicitly forbidden to use them for any human or veterinary purposes.
In general, yes. However, in some cases, when customers specifically ask for a batch with a longer anticipated lifespan, or in a case when a customer is satisfied with a certain batch, and asks for delivery of his ordered material from this batch, we'll do our best to fulfill his request.
Yes. Most compounds are stable enough to withstand transportation at ambient temperature. But when they arrive at their destination, “long term storage” is most probably required. It is therefore important to keep them in a freezer. It is also recommended (and sometimes imperative) to protect them from moisture and strong light.
Yes. The indicated storage temperature is the recommended optimal condition for long term storage. Most compounds are quite stable at warmer (or ambient) temperatures for short periods of time
Our products are mostly supplied in dry powder form. It may be difficult to see a milligram of anything at the bottom of the vial (which may be made of amber glass, to protect the substance from light). Sometimes we prefer to prepare a solution of the product, dispense in into vials and let the solvent evaporate under vacuum. In this case, the product will appear as a thin film or a miniscule pellet. To ensure that no product is lost upon opening, briefly spin down the vial in a bench top microcentrifuge before removing the cap. Once suspended in buffer or a solvent of choice, checking the OD at suitable wavelength will verify your material’s presence and concentration
Email us immediately with an attached photo.
No. We specify on the vial's label the material weight as per your order, but, because precision weighing at milligram range is very challenging, we prefer to err in your favor (not otherwise). However, if you request it, we will specify a more accurate weight on the label, so you'll be able to prepare your own standard solution and keep your desired ratio. If you want us to do so please enquire when submitting your order.
Most of our products fall into one or more of the following Customs classification categories:
- Customs code 2941900000 "Other antibiotics" where "Other" means:
- Other than Penicillins and their derivatives; salts thereof,
- Streptomycins and their derivatives; salts thereof,
- Tetracyclines and their derivatives; salts thereof,
- Chloramphenicol and its derivatives; salts thereof,
- Erythromycin and its derivatives; salts thereof
The other suggestion is 3822000000:
- Diagnostic or laboratory reagents on a backing, prepared diagnostic, or laboratory reagents whether or not on a backing, other than those of heading 3002 or 3006.
- Certified reference materials:
In most countries, these two custom codes will probably result in Zero percent customs fee.
“Census Warning Condition Code – Returned Narrative Text
27D – *CENSUS OR-HI VAL/QTY (1)
ACCEPTABLE CENSUS OVERRIDE CODE(S) – Description
04 Prototype
05 Sample
06 Assist
07 One-of-a-kind
08 Precision Made.
09 Unique Material
10 Experimental Drug
11 Military Application
15 Market Conditions
21 Weight of Article Lighter than Normal
49 Parameter Change Request Pending
50 Correct as Entered”
No, do not panic. It is the USA customs robot that has “panicked”. when it sees the invoice: The code “*CENSUS OR-HI VAL/QTY (1)” actually means: “So much money for so little (by weight) merchandise?” The robot raises a red flag asking “WHY?!” The carrier and the export/import people will take care of it by explaining “Correct as Entered”, because it is Unique Material.
We ship our products to any country that has Trade relations with Israel. However, as we use the courier services of FedEx to ship our products, your location should be supported by them. In a case where your location is not listed in the FedEx locations list we will check other courier services for the requested location. However, we cannot make any guarantees about the outcome of this approach.
We can also ship products to you if you have an account with a different courier service provider.
Please note that according to Israeli law and regulations we are forbidden to sell to certain countries (even through a 3rd party). Also, some products may be permitted to be sold to approved countries and/or entities and forbidden to others. In some cases, export and/or import license may be required and it may be rejected by the Israeli or your country's authorities.
There are four main categories of customers
- Academic researchers – Purchase a compound of interest, to use in a single experiment or a series of experiments.
- Applied pharma RND researchers – Purchase a compound of interest, to use in pharmaceutical research and initial pharmaceutical trials.
- Manufacturers of analytic kits and reagents – Usually purchase highly purified materials to use as a main compound in their kits.
- Distributors – These are returning customers who purchase greater quantities of materials and resell them. They may replace our labels with their own and resell the materials under their brand name (OEM) or resell them under Fermentek's brand name. Some distributors may order large quantities and repack them into small doses while others may order the exact quantity of a product when they receive an order from their customer.
All customers are equally welcome: except those who wish to use our materials for their own or their pet’s (or other animal) consumption. This is expressly forbidden.
- Individuals who are unlikely to be allowed, by their own country laws, to possess and use dangerous materials or those who ask for materials for personal use.
- States (including entities or citizens of these states) to which according to Israeli law and regulations we are forbidden to sell (even through a 3rd party) such as (but not limited to) Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.
- States which have no trade relations with Israel or are not listed in our shipping provider's destinations list. In some of these cases, we will be able to direct the customer to one of our distributors who can provide to these states.
- Where an export or import license or approval is demanded by Israeli law, international agreements, or your country's law and it won't be accepted
This is a good question. The answer consists of several parts:
- We are the source of the products and manufacture them at our own factory. Thus, we save the brokerage gaps incurred by non-manufacturers.
- We are a small and efficient company that does its best to save on unnecessary expenses. This eliminates the need to add unnecessary costs onto the final product price.
- Notwithstanding the above, we could demand higher prices, as is customary with our competitors. However, we see a mission in what we do and believe – expecting that the more products we can offer at the most affordable prices will contribute even in some small way, to advancing science, medicine and global health.
No. We do not grant exclusivity to anyone. But we are very flexible in our other terms, e.g. we allow our product to be re-packed, labelled and resold under your own brand name. We have no interest in your sales price or profit margins. If you buy considerably large amounts, your price per weight will be lower, and if you place frequent orders, we will offer you further discounts.
You're more than welcome to approach us with your ideas and requests. If it matches our roadmap, and we possess the required know-how, abilities and equipment, we may decide to put this substance in our R&D roadmap.
6.1.1 SDS
Each product page on our website has a link to a MSDS (SDS) document in PDF format, available only in English, which may be downloaded. Our SDS documents contain hyperlinks to information sources where available. (Due to certain technological limitations, these links become inactivated when the SDS is printed on paper 😊 ).
6.1.2 Product Information
This document is a compendium of regulatory and quality related questionnaires submitted by our customers, and the answers we supplied. The Product Information contains clickable links to the external sources of information, where applicable. The Product Information also contains, a certificate of origin, a “Mad-Cow” statement, allergens statement and many others. Each product has its own Product Information document.
6.1.3 Company Information
Presenting our company, its ccreditations, and some other facts in which regulation people from the buyer’s side may have an interest.
6.1.4 Certificate of Analysis (COA)
Each and every substance and batch go through a strict quality control process. The quality tests are performed by a professional QC specialist while the results are rechecked by our Quality Manager who approves them and documents them in a Certificate of Analytics. The COA is sent to our scientific manager for final approval.
Although most of the materials are stable, it must be said that the results of the control tests as documented in the certificate are accurate only for the date of the certificate. Materials can be sensitive to temperature, moisture, light or oxygen and it is common that changes in the parameters of these indices influence the test results of the materials.
When you buy an item, you receive a CoA hardcopy with it.
An Online SDS document is attached to every product page.
- Any time a customer asks for a quotation we attach the COA of the currently available batch of the requested material to our answer. In addition, the CoA of each of the provided batches is attached to the package sent to you.
You can always resort to our sales department at [email protected] and ask for a specific batch's COA..
Our products don't have an expiry date. For most products we recommend a retest date of after about three (3) years. However, some products are more sensitive and we recommend retesting after a shorter period from the COA date.
We take care to send materials that are at least one (1) year from the recommended retest date unless it is very sensitive material. Whenever the recommended retest date of material is in less than one year, we retest the materials stored at our facility and update the Certificate of Analysis (CoA) accordingly.
Note that while the updated CoA and recommended retest date both confirm the integrity of our stocks, they does not guarantee the quality of the material once it has left our facility.
As mentioned in the question above: "How do I get notified of expiry updates?"
Our products do not have an expiry date, but a recommended retest date. Whenever the recommended retest date of a batch of material is about to occur, we retest it and update the Certificate of Analysis (CoA) according to the results. The retests are done on material stored at our facility and the results are relevant only for the material stored in our facility, as we have no control over off-site storage and handling. However, if you stored the material according to our recommended storage conditions, you can reasonably expect that your material will possess the same data as our stored material...but for obvious reasons we can offer no guarantees.
There are a number of applicable answers to this question:
There will most probably be certain differences between your analytical methods and ours. You will be asked to disclose your methods and try to recheck the material using with our methods. The analytical methods we use are disclosed (briefly) on our Certificates of Analysis.
Some materials are very sensitive to temperature, light, oxygen, humidity etc., and their analytical values may change from the values in the test data as stated on the certificate.
In any event, your claim will be taken most seriously, investigated thoroughly and depending on the outcome of the investigation, you'll get an answer, and if required, a replacement or refund for the material in question.
No. We do not claim nor believe that anyone can claim copyright on an MSDS. This type of document is merely a compilation of common knowledge, published facts, and even the writing style is standard.
The microbes (and fungi) we use are natural, nonpathogenic species. We use them exactly as they were isolated from the earth. We do not use modified organisms (GMO) for any purposes.
- We do not release water-miscible solvents into the city’s sewage system.
- We do not release any poisonous gases into the atmosphere, or any agents which can affect the OZONE layer.
- We do not discard microbial biomass, whether alive or dead, into the city’s garbage disposal system.
- We only use all natural, not pathogenic microbes.
- Moreover, we do not apply genetic engineering to our microbes and fungi.
By default, we recommend storing the products in a laboratory grade freezer, at -17°C to -21°C, in its original packaging. Prior to opening the vial, we recommend allowing it to reach room temperature.
Each SDS document has a section describing the storage and handling of the product.
It is not a big issue to store chemicals at -20oC. Although no harm is expected if a product is left overnight on a desk, storing it deep-frozen is commonly better. Most our products may be stored deep-frozen for long terms and withstand numerous thaw-freeze cycles unharmed. If we find a product which behaves otherwise, our customers will be informed about it.
Regretfully, we cannot advise you in areas in which we have no expertise. We can share information we have gathered from available literature, and whatever data we can support, we publish on the corresponding product page. It would your own responsibility to decide how to prepare your stock solution and what solvents are best.
Regretfully, we cannot answer this question as it is beyond our control.
