MilliporeSigma Opens its First Customer Food Safety Studio

  • New Food Safety Studio in Bellevue, Washington, serves as global center for innovation and collaboration
  • Demonstration and training lab space extends product and process development to customers

Billerica, Massachusetts, August 30, 2017 — MilliporeSigma has opened its first global Food Safety Studio in Bellevue, Washington for manufacturers of all types of food (beef, poultry, produce, etc.) to collaborate with MilliporeSigma scientists on developing safety products for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens.

The new 5,300-square foot center gives customers access to a complete food safety workflow, from raw materials testing to finished-product safety testing, to help find, correct and prevent hazards within the food supply chain. The center allows customers to work with many manual or automated food safety products such as testing kits and hygiene swabs that are critical to maintaining safety throughout the manufacturing process.

”The opening of MilliporeSigma’s Food Safety Studio demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the safety of the global food supply,” said Jean-Charles Wirth, Head of the Applied Solutions business unit at MilliporeSigma. “With this investment, we are bringing teams together in a workspace designed to foster open innovation and collaboration with the goal of becoming the leader in food safety testing.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 48 million Americans each year are affected by foodborne illness that is often caused by eating a wide range of foods, including undercooked meat, raw eggs, produce and dairy products.

MilliporeSigma, which earlier this year acquired BioControl Systems, a global leader in food safety testing, helps customers protect the global food supply by providing a comprehensive portfolio of state-of-the-art testing technologies.

Customer visits are being scheduled for the new Food Safety Studio, which features a Food Safety Demonstration Center designed with a classroom setting and demonstration lab.

About the Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. Udit Batra is the global chief executive officer of MilliporeSigma.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany completed its $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich in November 2015, creating a leader in the $125 billion global life science industry.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company has six businesses – Biopharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Allergopharma, Biosimilars, Life Science and Performance Materials – and generated sales of €15.0 billion in 2016. Around 50,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to foster the success of customers and to help meet global challenges.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company – since 1668, the company has stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. Holding an approximately 70 percent interest, the founding family remains the majority owner of the company to this day. The company holds the global rights to the name and the trademark “Merck” internationally except in the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.