Record-keeping and disposal for research materials

For every lot a laboratory has held, the file should be able to produce:

• The certificate of analysis for that lot — see how to read a certificate of analysis.
• The order record: order number, date, quantity.
• The receiving entry: date received, condition on arrival, storage location.
• The handling entries: who, when, what was done.
• The disposal entry: date, what, how, signed off by whom.

The notebook side of this is covered in a lab notebook and chain of custody for reference materials. This post is about the last two items and about keeping the file.

Retention periods are set by the laboratory's institution, its funders and its regulator, and they are often longer than people expect. The safe default is to keep material records for at least as long as any result that depended on the material could be questioned. A certificate that is easy to obtain today — contact support with the lot number and it is sent the same business day — is easier still to keep on file from the start.

Nothing from a research laboratory goes in the household bin. Disposal follows the laboratory's chemical waste procedure and local regulation, and the first step is deciding which waste stream each item belongs to:

• Residual material and empty vials go to chemical waste, characterised according to the laboratory's procedure for the class of material.
• Sharps — needles, broken glass — go to a sharps container, never loose.
• Contaminated consumables — tips, gloves, wipes — go to the stream the laboratory designates for chemically contaminated solid waste.
• Liquids are never poured to drain unless the laboratory's procedure specifically permits it for that liquid.

The laboratory's environmental health and safety function, or its waste contractor, is the authority on which stream is which.

Waste containers are labelled with their contents as they are filled, not at collection, and a waste manifest records what was collected, when, and by whom. The inventory row for a lot ends by pointing at that manifest. An inventory that can show a lot arriving, being held, and leaving as characterised waste is one that closes the loop; one that simply stops is a question an auditor will ask.

Unopened, undamaged material with an intact seal may be returnable within 30 days of delivery under the returns policy, with prior authorisation. Opened, altered or improperly stored material is not, and is disposed of by the laboratory. Do not send material back as a way of disposing of it; a return received without authorisation cannot be processed.

Consider one vial from arrival to disposal. The receiving entry: date, order number, compound as printed on the label, lot number, one vial, seal intact, cake dry, stored at the condition on the certificate, location noted, certificate filed under the lot number. Three handling entries over the following weeks, each with a name, a date and the instruments used. A final entry: date, residual material and empty vial to chemical waste under the laboratory's procedure, waste container reference, manifest number when collected, signed. Every question that could later be asked about that vial — what it was, where it came from, who touched it, where it went — is answered by the file without anyone's memory being consulted. The receiving side of that record is walked through in inspecting a vial on arrival.

This is general laboratory practice for records and waste. It is not a preparation, dilution, usage or disposal instruction for any specific material sold on this site; we publish none, and the laboratory's own procedures and local regulation govern. All material is supplied for in-vitro laboratory research only — see research use only and the buyer responsibilities in the disclaimer.