FAQ — Analysis Services

Who can use the analysis service?

Companies of any size, universities and institutions, and private individuals. No account to create, no annual contract, and no company required. Tell us what you make and what you need to know about it.

How does an order work?

Complete the request form on the analytical services page. We reply within a working day to settle what you need; the pro-forma invoice follows within two to three working days. Once payment has cleared you receive a prepaid UPS label together with the customs paperwork, already prepared. You pack the samples, attach the label and hand the parcel in at your nearest UPS point. Nothing is charged before you approve the invoice.

Do I have to arrange shipping or deal with customs?

No. Shipping is Delivered Duty Paid, both ways. We book the courier and prepare the export declaration, the commercial invoice and the HS codes, and send you a photographed guide showing what goes where. You print the label and the documents, pack the sample and hand the parcel in. Nothing is charged at the border.

Where can you ship from?

Anywhere UPS operates — worldwide. The further away you are, the more the included shipping and customs handling matters. We cannot ship from countries subject to EU sanctions or export restrictions.

How long does it take?

Three to four weeks in most cases, counted from the day the laboratory receives your sample; transit time is not included. The turnaround for your own order is confirmed when the laboratory booking is made, and the report date once your samples have arrived. Some analyses take longer; where a product page gives a longer figure for a package, that figure applies.

How is the price made up?

Two elements. A handling and shipping fee, charged once per shipment however many samples it contains — EUR 80 for the European Union, the United Kingdom and EFTA, EUR 150 for the rest of the world. And a package price per sample, published on the page for your product category. All prices are net.

How do I pay? Is there a card checkout?

By ordinary bank transfer, in your own currency, against a pro-forma invoice. There is no card checkout, no account to create and no surcharge. For most major currencies we hold local account details, so payment leaves your bank as a domestic transfer rather than an international wire. Work begins once payment has cleared; prices are held for 30 days from the date of the pro-forma invoice.

Do you accept purchase orders and invoice my institution?

Yes. Send your PO reference and we raise the pro-forma invoice against it — nothing to register and no account to create. The invoice can be addressed to your institution or department as your purchasing process requires.

Which products do you test?

Eight categories, each with its own page: supplements and multivitamins (SUP), botanicals, herbs and spices (BOT), superfoods and powders (POW), mushrooms and mushroom extracts (MSH), seaweed, algae and aquatic biomass (SEA), honey and bee products (HON), wine, beer and juices (BEV), and chemicals, by NMR. Every package carries a code — SUP-01, BOT-03 — and that code is what you write on the request form.

My product is not in the list.

Tell us what you make and what you need to know about it, or what a customer or distributor has asked you for. If we can do it, we will quote it; if we cannot, we will say so.

I do not know which analysis I need.

Working that out is part of the service. Describe the product and the question behind it — a retailer's requirement, a claim on your label you want to stand behind, a limit someone has asked you about — and we tell you what to measure. When the report arrives we go through what it says with you.

Is every analysis accredited?

No, and the quotation tells you which are and which are not. The analyses are performed under ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation in the European Union or equivalent. Some determinations have no accredited method, and some fall outside a laboratory's accredited scope; where that is the case we say so on the quotation, before you order, rather than leave it to be assumed.

What does the quotation confirm?

Tell us what you make and which packages you want. The pro-forma we send back names the limit each result will be read against, the reporting limit and the measurement uncertainty of each method where the method provides them, whether each analysis is performed under accreditation, how much to send, and the turnaround for your order. Nothing on the report will differ from what the quotation told you.

How much of the product do I send?

It depends on the analysis. As a guide, powders, capsules and tablets usually need 100–200 g — two or three retail packs, or one tub. Beverages travel as sealed retail units, unopened. The exact quantity is confirmed with your quotation, before anything ships.

What is the NMR service, and how do I request it?

You send a physical sample and receive an interpreted spectrum. Submit the form on the NMR service page: describe the sample, its approximate mass and physical form, and what you need to establish. We screen it and reply within a working day; the pro-forma invoice follows within two to three working days, and the prepaid shipping label once payment has cleared.

What does NMR cost?

The same two elements as any other order: the handling and shipping fee once per shipment, and a package per sample. Packages I to V are priced on the NMR service page; VI, fuller characterisation, and VII, full structure elucidation, are quoted per sample. Each further heteronucleus on the same sample is charged as an addition, also priced there.

Can I send several samples, and are there discounts?

Yes. Each sample is charged at its package price and the order fee is charged only once for the whole shipment. For the same experiment across several samples, volume discounts apply from four samples upwards. If you send samples regularly, a subscription gives 20% below list with the order fee waived on every shipment; subscriptions are arranged by quotation. Current rates are on the NMR service page.

What is included in the price?

Everything from the vial on your bench to a signed report: the prepaid courier label both ways; the commercial invoice, HS code and export declaration, prepared for you, with a photographed packing guide; the deuterated solvent and NMR tube; acquisition at the field the nucleus actually needs; processing and structural assignment by a chemist, not an automated pipeline; a signed report on letterhead; and the native FID and processed data, yours to reprocess and check.

What do I get back?

A signed report on NorrChemica letterhead — peaks assigned, integrals accounted for, purity stated — together with the native FID and processed data. Where the data cannot separate two possibilities, the report says so, and says which experiment would resolve it.

I don't know which experiment I need. How is it decided?

You do not have to choose. Tell us what you are trying to establish — a structure, a purity figure, the identity of an impurity — and the right experiment is selected before the sample reaches the magnet. A proton spectrum may settle a simple question; another needs an HSQC and an HMBC, a qNMR against a calibrated standard, or a ¹⁹F spectrum you had not considered. Choosing correctly is part of the work.

What do ¹H and ¹³C NMR tell me?

They are the workhorses of organic structure determination. ¹H reports the number and environment of hydrogen atoms and how they couple to one another; ¹³C reports the carbon skeleton. Together they confirm identity and reveal most structural features of a small organic molecule.

When would I need ¹⁹F, ³¹P or ¹¹B NMR?

When the molecule contains those atoms. These heteronuclear spectra give a fast, direct read of what the molecule is doing in solution — how many distinct species are present, their oxidation state, coordination geometry and symmetry. They are sensitive and quick, and often answer a question a proton spectrum cannot.

What is qNMR, and when do I need it?

Quantitative NMR measures purity by comparing your compound against a calibrated internal standard, under acquisition conditions chosen for accurate integration. Use it when you need a defensible purity figure rather than a qualitative check — for a certificate of analysis, a reference material, or batch release.

How do I know the purity figure is reliable?

A purity figure comes from quantitative NMR measured against a calibrated internal standard, not from a qualitative look at a spectrum. The report states the value and the basis for it, and you receive the native data to check the integration yourself.

How do you identify an unknown impurity?

Above the identification threshold — commonly 0.1% — an impurity must be characterised, not merely detected. If you have no reference standard, chromatography cannot tell you what it is, and mass spectrometry gives a formula rather than a structure. NMR assigns the signals directly. Where the data cannot separate two possibilities, we say so, and say which experiment would resolve it.

Why use NMR rather than LC/MS to identify an impurity?

Mass spectrometry gives a molecular formula, not a structure, and two isomers weigh the same. Chromatography separates and quantifies but cannot identify a peak without a reference standard you may not have. NMR reads the structure directly from the spectrum, which is why it settles questions the other techniques leave open.

What is the difference between COSY, HSQC and HMBC?

They are the three routine 2D experiments for building a structure. COSY connects protons that couple to each other. HSQC maps each proton to the carbon it is directly bonded to. HMBC maps protons to carbons two or three bonds away, connecting fragments across quaternary carbons and heteroatoms. Together they resolve connectivity that a 1D spectrum leaves ambiguous.

What does the report contain?

One report for the whole order, whatever was measured. For each determination: the result; the method; the reporting limit; the measurement uncertainty where the method provides one; whether the determination was performed under accreditation; and the maximum level that applies to your product, named. Nothing in it will be new to you — it confirms what the quotation said.

What happens if a result exceeds the legal limit?

The report gives the measured value beside the limit that applies, so the exceedance is plain to read. We then talk you through what the number means for your product. The result is yours and stays confidential.

Is my sample and my data kept confidential?

Yes. Everything you send is used only for your analysis — never shared, never sold, never used to train anything. Your sample is handled under an internal reference only, never under your name or your product's identity. Records are held in confidence and deleted once no longer needed. If you require a non-disclosure agreement, we will sign one you provide, though the confidentiality terms already apply to every order.