Scientists working in Thermo Fisher’s Centre used oil samples collected from the Gulf region to develop step-by-step testing procedures which can be quickly implemented by food and environmental laboratories. The goal is to protect consumers from potentially contaminated seafood found in the Gulf waters.
Marc N Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific said: We created our global Food Safety Response Centre to help our laboratory customers around the world quickly mobilise during a food contamination crisis, using our depth of capabilities to develop methods that enable them to respond to potential threats. The incident in the Gulf is a clear example of the type of threat the Centre can address through our leading analytical technologies and applications expertise. Our new methods for detecting petroleum in oysters and fish were designed to significantly reduce analysis time and enable our customers to meet the demand for rapid and reliable testing of seafood from the Gulf for the foreseeable future.”