Battelle works seamlessly with your team to evaluate and minimize threats to food safety.

Battelle combines experienced scientists in both food safety/food security and chemical/biological defense to evaluate food processes, packaging, and products for vulnerability to adulteration/contamination, mitigate identified vulnerabilities, and develop analytical methods for biological and chemical threats in foods. We deliver timely and cost-effective consulting, research, and development services to government agencies and companies in food-related industries.

Services in food security include:

• Evaluate Current Food Practices—procurement, processing, packaging, storage, and distribution processes and determine vulnerabilities at each stage. Determine gaps in current data and security and develop plans to mitigate vulnerabilities at each stage.
• Develop and Validate Analytical Methods—for the analysis of potential biological and chemical adulterants of food matrices, including toxins and chemical agents.
• Analysis and Evaluation—of chemical and biological background present in each food matrix or class of food matrices
• Develop Sample Collection Kits—for potential contamination which are specific to a company’s or agency’s processes and products. Codify processes for collection and shipment of samples and then train appropriate personnel in forensically valid procedures.
• Develop, Integrate, and Validate/Evaluate Sensors—to evaluate the presence of volatile and non-volatile biological and chemical threats that are or could be food adulterants/contaminants
• Determine Biomarkers—indicative of exposure to exogenous or endogenous biologicals and chemicals that could be harmful to health (human, animal, or plants). Develop sensitive and selective assays for these biomarkers.
• Evaluate Existing Packaging—and develop or assist with the development of new packaging materials to increase food integrity.
• Response Planning—generate integrated and proactive company-specific response plans for food contamination events to alleviate post-event uncertainty, delay, and damage.

Specialized Equipment:

• High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with a variety of detectors (Mass Selective, Ultraviolet/Visible, Fluorescence, and Radiochemical)
• Gas Chromatography (GC) with multiple types of detectors (Mass Selective, Pulsed-Flame Photometric, Flame Ionization, and Electron Capture)
• Two-dimensional GC (GC2) with Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
• Mass Spectrometers (Triple-Quadrupole, Ion Trap, Time-of-Flight, and High Resolution)
• Capillary Electrophoresis
• Ion Chromatography
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
• Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy
• Fluorescence Spectroscopy
• Raman Spectroscopy
• Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
• One- and Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis