Bio-Rad teams with Mars and IBM Research in effort to make our food safer

Protecting the global food supply is a monumental public health challenge. In the U.S. alone, food-borne diseases affect one in six people each year - resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Around $75 billion worth of contaminated food is recalled and discarded annually.

Mars, Incorporated is working in partnership with experts across the globe to help address food safety challenges and share knowledge to ensure the global food supply is the safest it can be.

In 2015 we launched the Global Food Safety Center in China, and now we are strengthening the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain, the collaborative food safety platform we founded with IBM Research to leverage genomics to advance our understanding of what makes food safe. The global life science research and clinical diagnostics company Bio-Rad Laboratories has joined the consortium and will contribute leading-edge expertise in chromogenic and molecular tests for food pathogens and food quality indicators. Bio-Rad develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of innovative products and solutions for the life science research and clinical diagnostic markets.

“We are delighted to welcome Bio-Rad to the consortium and incredibly excited to be working with them and IBM Research to drive forward global innovation in genomics, food, and agriculture,” said Harold Schmitz, Chief Science Officer for Mars, Incorporated. “The Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain has the potential to revolutionize food safety and help us identify and address new threats on a much bigger scale than has ever been possible. Bio-Rad will bring a new dimension to the consortium effort with their suite of advanced testing techniques and equipment. This type of uncommon collaboration will drive even greater capacity, insight, and capability in food safety science and help us achieve critical breakthroughs.”

Click to learn more about the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain, Bio-Rad, and our Global Food Safety Center.