Taiwan Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis Enhances Food Safety Mission with State-of-the-Art Technologies from Waters

MILFORD, Mass., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) announced today that the Taiwan Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis (BFDA) has purchased and installed a total of four Waters^® ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC^® (UPLC^®) Systems and nine Xevo™ TQ tandem quadrupole mass spectrometers to support its efforts to protect Taiwanese consumers and the country's food supply by monitoring domestically-produced and imported food sold within the country. The new instruments will be placed with regional laboratories throughout Taiwan and with the Divisions of Food Chemistry and Food Microbiology to add to existing capacity and give scientists increased access to the latest in analytical technology. These laboratories develop and validate analytical methods for testing imported foods, drugs, and cosmetics for antibiotic and residual pesticides, natural toxins, carcinogens, pathogens and other contaminants and adulterants. The agency purchased its first instruments from Waters in 2002.

The Taiwan BFDA chose Waters ACQUITY UPLC and Xevo TQ Systems based on requirements for resolution, sensitivity, compound confirmation and quantification, data accuracy, speed, and solvent savings.

In October of 2009, Waters announced the purchase of nine Waters^® ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC (UPLC) Systems by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), College Park, Maryland to support its priority to protect the U.S. food supply by monitoring domestically-produced and imported food sold in interstate commerce.

About Waters ACQUITY UPLC and Xevo TQ Systems

Securing global food safety is a key concern of both governments and manufacturers.  Recent events highlight the risks posed by both accidental contamination and deliberate adulteration.  As governments adopt stricter standards and measures of enforcement, analytical technology plays a vital role in monitoring all manner of contaminants at very low concentrations in a variety of food products. Waters liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry instruments, chemistry consumables, and data management software allow laboratories to test food products in compliance with tougher government standards and manage huge volumes of data.

The Xevo TQ System features IntelliStart™ technology automating many of the manual functions once required to calibrate and optimize the instrument for operation. In addition, unique features such as ScanWave™-enabled collision cell technology, numerous ionization options, rapid 20 millisecond positive to negative ion switching, and high speed multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) allow the Xevo TQ mass spectrometer to perform fast, accurate and highly sensitive quantification of very large panels of target analytes.    

In addition to offering greater resolution, more sensitivity and faster run times, Waters ACQUITY UPLC systems consume up to 95% less solvent than many legacy HPLC systems making UPLC methods a "greener" alternative for the analytical laboratory.  When coupled with a mass spectrometer, Waters ACQUITY UPLC System promotes increased source efficiencies and improved MS sensitivity and spectral quality as the result of increased peak concentrations and reduced chromatographic dispersion.

For more information about Waters ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC products, visit www.waters.com/uplc. For more information about Waters Xevo MS products, visit www.waters.com/xevo.

About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)

Waters Corporation creates business advantages for laboratory-dependent organizations by delivering practical and sustainable innovation to enable significant advancements in such areas as healthcare delivery, environmental management, food safety and water quality worldwide.

Pioneering a connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory information management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis, Waters technology breakthroughs and laboratory solutions provide an enduring platform for customer success.

With revenue of $1.58 billion in 2008 and 5,000 employees, Waters is driving scientific discovery and operational excellence for customers worldwide.

Waters, ACQUITY, ACQUITY UPLC, ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC, UPLC, IntelliStart, ScanWave and Xevo are trademarks of Waters Corporation.

SOURCE Waters Corporation