Eurofins and USP Announce Collaboration to Tackle Food Fraud

Eurofins Scientific (EUFI.PA), a global leader in bioanalytical testing, announces that its Group Competence Centre for Food Authenticity has signed a collaboration agreement with the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (“USP”), a scientific non-profit organization that sets standards for the identity, strength, quality, and purity of medicines, food ingredients, and dietary supplements. The agreement was first disclosed at the 2017 Global Food Safety Conference earlier this month in Houston, TX.

Eurofins and USP will combine expertise to assist the food sector with specific tools for combatting food fraud. The agreement includes several areas of cooperation, including exploration of new analytical testing methods, training and consulting to help the food sector assess the vulnerability of supply chains, and other services based on global analytical and food fraud data to inform stakeholders of emerging issues.

Eurofins is renowned for its unparalleled expertise in the development of analytical methods for food fraud detection, as well as for providing certification audits according to Global Food Safety Initiative (“GFSI”) schemes (i.e. BRC, IFS, SQF) and Eurofins-designed standards (Non-GMO Identity Preservation) for food safety management systems, traceability, and identity preservation within food supply chains. Eurofins remains at the forefront of technology with continuous innovation, and has previously participated in the Food Fraud Think Tank, a public-private partnership encouraged by the GFSI, and whose work has led to recommendations to include food fraud mitigation in existing food safety management systems of the food industry.

USP’s Food Fraud Database is a comprehensive source of information on food fraud risk for thousands of ingredients. The database can be used to identify which ingredients have a known history of adulterations including incident reports, inference reports, surveillance records, and analytical methods. USP searches, compiles, and performs quality control checks on data gathered daily from scientific literature, media publications, regulatory and judicial records and trade associations from around the globe.  USP’s Food Fraud Mitigation Guidance provides a framework to assess ingredient vulnerability, the associated risk, and develop food fraud mitigation plans.

Comment from Rodolphe Labal, Managing Director of Eurofins Food Testing France: “Working closely with the USP team will reinforce our food fraud deterrence services portfolio to benefit the food industry, using our know-how and proprietary technologies, including our competencies in authenticity testing and manufacturers sites auditing”.

Comment from Willem Folkerts, USP’s VP of Strategic Marketing and Program Operations: “USP is focused on improving public health and has developed tools that can play a critical role to help industry address the issue of adulterated foods within the complexities of the ingredient supply chain. Our collaboration with Eurofins will leverage the scientific strengths of both organizations to help improve safety and integrity in the foods we eat”

For more information, please visit www.eurofins.com or contact:

Notes for the editor:

Eurofins – a global leader in bio-analysis

Eurofins Scientific through its subsidiaries (hereinafter sometimes “Eurofins” or “the Group”) believes it is the world leader in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing and that it is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for agroscience, genomics, discovery pharmacology and for supporting clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the key emerging players in specialty clinical diagnostic testing in Europe and the USA. With over 27,000 staff in 310 laboratories across 39 countries, Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 130,000 analytical methods for evaluating the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin and purity of biological substances and products, as well as for innovative clinical diagnostic. The Group objective is to provide its customers with high-quality services, accurate results on time and expert advice by its highly qualified staff.

Eurofins is committed to pursuing its dynamic growth strategy by expanding both its technology portfolio and its geographic reach. Through R&D and acquisitions, the Group draws on the latest developments in the field of biotechnology and analytical chemistry to offer its clients unique analytical solutions and the most comprehensive range of testing methods.

As one of the most innovative and quality oriented international players in its industry, Eurofins is ideally positioned to support its clients’ increasingly stringent quality and safety standards and the expanding demands of regulatory authorities around the world.

The shares of Eurofins Scientific are listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN FR0000038259, Reuters EUFI.PA, Bloomberg ERF FP).

About USP

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a global health organization that improves lives through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods. USP’s standards are used worldwide. For more information about USP visit http://www.usp.org. 

Important disclaimer:

This press release contains forward-looking statements and estimates that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements and estimates contained herein represent the judgement of Eurofins Scientific’ management as of the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees for future performance, and the forward-looking events discussed in this release may not occur. Eurofins Scientific disclaims any intent or obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements and estimates. All statements and estimates are made based on the information available to the Company’s management as of the date of publication, but no guarantee can be made as to their validity.