Qiagen acquires portfolio of molecular food safety tests

Qiagen has entered into an agreement with the Institute for Product Quality (ifp), pursuant to which Qiagen has acquired all rights to 70 molecular food safety tests developed by the Berlin-based specialised laboratory centre for food analysis. The transaction further strengthens Qiagen’s ‘Applied Testing’ business segment, which also encompasses molecular testing systems for forensic applications, veterinary medicine and biodefence.

The tests acquired from ifp are based on the widely used real-time polymerase chain reaction technology and cover a broad range of molecular targets including genetic, bacterial, viral and other contaminants of foodstuffs. The tests can be fully automated using Qiagen’s instruments such as the QIAsymphony and the Rotor-Gene Q. The transaction enables Qiagen to offer complete solutions for all major applications in the food safety testing segment, covering entire workflows from the processing of primary samples to the final testing result.

Applied testing currently accounts for 7% of the company’s net sales. Food safety testing is a steadily growing segment with an overall market volume of more than US$2 billion. The market breaks down into four application groups: detection of pathogens, quality controls (such as testing for components subjected to illicit genetic modification), detection of allergens and identification of animal species. The increasing demand for food safety testing is being driven by evolving consumer awareness, more stringent legal requirements and the growing needs of food manufacturers who find themselves confronted with ever more complex sample base materials, as well as new pathogens that are increasingly difficult to detect.

Molecular tests, and in particular real-time PCR-based assays, are gaining more widespread use in such applications as they are significantly faster and more reliable than traditional methods and also allow for the detection of genetic targets. With their help, for instance, food producers can obtain certainty as to the safety of their planned deliveries within less than 24 hours.