Applied Biosystems Partners With China to Help Reinforce New Standards for...

Applied Biosystems Partners With China to Help Reinforce New Standards for Food Safety

Mass Spectrometry Technology Provides Accurate Identification of Contaminants

Applied Biosystems, part of Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE), today announced that it is assisting the Chinese government in reinforcing new standards for food safety in China. As part of its effort to enhance its ability to monitor the domestic food supply in addition to global exports, the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ) is deploying 40 AB SCIEX mass spectrometers to ensure accurate identification of contaminants. This supports China’s continued emergence as a global supplier of food products.

Scientists in China are using this mass spectrometry technology to perform more advanced analysis of a wide range of food, including rice, corn, wheat, soybeans, fruits, vegetables and livestock products. This analysis is critical for the new standards, and it is enabled by the highly sensitive detection capabilities of the mass spectrometers, which were developed by the Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies joint venture.

These systems improve the capabilities of laboratories to scan for, identify and measure the quantity of contaminants in extremely small amounts, enabling government and industry to respond more swiftly to prevent the potential spread of contamination, while having high confidence in the results. As a result, China will be able to ensure more stringent food regulation compliance that will help protect consumers and avoid costly recalls of food products.

Laura Lauman, President of Life Technologies’ Mass Spectrometry Systems Division

"Life Technologies is committed to partnering with China to help improve food safety, resulting in one of the single-largest implementations of our proven mass spectrometry technologies. This effort is a critical step in ensuring the safety of China’s food products by enabling the accurate identification of harmful chemicals in order to prevent contamination from entering the food supply."

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About Applied Biosystems Products

Life Technologies’ Applied Biosystems brand is a global leader in providing innovative, optimized instrument systems and workflows to accelerate academic and clinical research, drug discovery and development, pathogen detection and forensic DNA analysis. Through its Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen brand of reagents, kits and bench-top devices, Life Technologies markets the most comprehensive portfolio of solutions for molecular and cell biology. Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen products are used in nearly every major laboratory in the world. For more information, please visit: www.appliedbiosystems.com and www.invitrogen.com.

About Life Technologies

Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:LIFE) is a global biotechnology tools company dedicated to improving the human condition. Our systems, consumables and services enable researchers to accelerate scientific exploration, driving to discoveries and developments that make life even better. Life Technologies customers do their work across the biological spectrum, working to advance personalized medicine, regenerative science, molecular diagnostics, agricultural and environmental research, and 21st century forensics. Life Technologies had sales of more than $3 billion in 2008, employs approximately 9,500 people, has a presence in more than 100 countries, and possesses a rapidly growing intellectual property estate of approximately 3,600 patents and exclusive licenses. Life Technologies was created by the combination of Invitrogen Corporation and Applied Biosystems Inc. For more information on how we are making a difference please visit our website: www.lifetechnologies.com.