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AB Sciex and Phenomenex Partner to Improve Food Safety Testing

Jan. 31, 2012

AB Sciex, a global specialist in life science analytical technologies, and Phenomenex, a global specialist in separation science techniques,  announced a collaboration agreement designed to significantly improve food testing. Critical to the collaboration is the creation of a joint rapid response team responsible for developing the industry's highest-quality, most cost-effective methods. This partnership is expected to support efforts to prevent the spread of tainted food and help increase safety of the global food supply.

Recent food contamination crises have increased the demand across the food testing community worldwide for just-in-time methods for faster response, higher quality results and less expensive tests. To address this demand, scientists from AB Sciex and Phenomenex will work closely with a broad range of food industry experts in specific applications, such as pesticides, antibiotics, allergens and natural toxins, to swiftly provide labs worldwide with verified analytical methodologies for emerging threats to food safety.

Expertise and resources from both companies combine to form a new global rapid response unit comprised of personnel from Phenomenex's method development research team and AB Sciex's total solutions group. This joint network will better enable food testing laboratories around the world to test for emerging contaminants and more quickly identify the cause of tainted food than previously possible. Food testing scientists and analysts will be able to access this rapid response resource via the Internet to help them solve LC/MS issues that they face in their own laboratories.

Among the food testing application-specific experts who are part of the joint network of independent scientists working with these companies to help shape new method development is Dr. Michael Quilliam at the National Research Council of Canada in Halifax. He is a recognized expert on shellfish toxin analysis and is already working with AB Sciex to develop an iMethod application to improve the identification and quantitation of shellfish toxins in the food supply.

The application will involve the National Research Council's analytical methodology and certified reference materials. Dr. Quilliam uses both technologies in his laboratory.

As part of the collaboration agreement, Phenomenex will work with AB Sciex to expand and sell the portfolio of AB Sciex's iMethod applications and combine Phenomenex's HPLC/UHPLC columns and sample preparation with AB Sciex's mass spectrometers. The combined resources simplify the process for food testing scientists to acquire complete methods to rapidly address food contamination crises.

iMethod applications are turnkey, verified methods designed to provide the instructions and parameters of how to most effectively conduct a test to identify food contamination with the highest confidence. These methods, which can be used through AB Sciex's Cliquid Software in multiple languages, have proven to reduce the time to results in food analysis from days to hours.

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Keywords : AB Sciex AB Sciex's iMethod Analytics Chromatography Cliquid Software Columns Food Analysis Food Safety HPLC Michael Quilliam National Research Council of Canada Phenomenex UHPLC

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AB Sciex
LV Nieuwerkkerk a/d IJsse
2913 Hoogeveenenweg 100
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 1 803924 00
Web: http://www.absciex.com

Phenomenex Inc.


Torrance, CA, USA

Web: http://www.phenomenex.com

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