Quality Assurance

Bio-Fly is committed to providing its customers with a product of the highest quality. Since November 2005, the facility has been manufacturing its products in compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 quality standard awarded by BVQI and IQC.

The Bio-Fly production process is carried out under the strictest quality testing and quality control systems. In order to ensure the performance of our sterile flies in the field, a series of quality tests is run on the final product – pupae and sterile flies.

Production and product control are based on international standards published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO):Manual for Product Quality Control and Shipping Procedures for Sterile Mass-Reared Tephritid Fruit Flies.

The major tests conducted on sterile pupae are:

• Pupae size 
• Percentage of females in the shipment
• Percentage of emergence and flight ability
• Sterility test
• Test for longevity under stress conditions  

Twice a year, a mating performance field cage test is held for sterilized flies at the Citrus Board's Institute for Biological Control. In this test the irradiated flies' ability to compete with wild male flies and to copulate with females in the field are tested.

In addition, Bio-Fly has developed complementary tests whose goal is to test the functional quality of flies released in the fields, including testing of the flies' vitality and testing of fly survivability in field conditions.