Biotechnology research tools to streamline production and the quality control and safety testing of food and beverage products
From customized work cells for cellular agriculture to quality and safety testing, the Molecular Devices team has developed industry leading technologies to help scale up beer, wine, plant-based protein, and cell cultured meat for the food and beverage industry
Food and beverage manufacturing can prove challenging from both a regulatory, quality, and efficiency perspective. According to Food Safety News article, ‘More looking back at 2021 recalls,” FDA-regulated firms, which include food and cosmetic companies, reported 427 recalls by the end of 2021. There were an additional 47 USDA recalls in 2021 totaling 15,501,273 pounds in recalled food.*
Similar to biologics, food products must undergo extensive regulatory oversight to ensure consumer safety and sustainable manufacturing practices. Our systems and support team have helped food and beverage groups across diverse business sectors by automating the manual processes that can slow down manufacturing and help ensure the quality, authenticity and safety.
Learn more about technologies and techniques
Learn how our systems can help streamline and scale your beer, wine and food production and other food quality and safety testing using industry-standard approved methods
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Cell Cultured Meat
Cell cultured meat is a product of cellular agriculture that uses biopsied animal cells to grow sustainable, humane meat as an alternative to the traditional farming industry. Because cell cultured meat is made with mammalian cells, many of the processes in developing and scaling a cell cultured meat product will mirror those in in biologics production, specifically cell line development.
Cellular Agriculture
Cellular agriculture is the process of utilizing synthetic biology, cell line development, and protein engineering techniques to produce products that are traditionally harvested via farming, most notably proteins and fats for food products.
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Precision Fermentation
Cellular agriculture allows us to produce genuine animal proteins through microbial precision fermentation. Using synthetic biology techniques like strain engineering, scientists can engineer microbial cells as cellular factories for various organic molecules, most commonly proteins. In the food supply chain, precision fermentation is used to create everything from plant-based proteins from yeast cells to dairy- and animal-free whey protein from fungal strains.
Quality Control & Safety Testing
To ensure quality, authenticity and safety, manufacturers of foods and beverages need to perform a wide range of tests on their products. Many of these tests are based around ELISA, which are used in areas as diverse as checking for the presence of bacterial endotoxins, mycotoxins, various allergens, growth promoter hormones and antibiotics, and for meat species identification. Other absorbance tests can also be used to quantify levels of substances within foods – such as sugars, phenols, and acids.
Latest Resources
Resources for Food & Beverage
Blog
The role of CRISPR in microbiome engineering [Podcast]
The role of CRISPR in microbiome engineering [Podcast]
The Role of CRISPR in Scientific Breakthroughs in Microbiome Engineering Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) was first discovered in the genome of marine…
Brochure
QPix XE Microbial Colony Picker
QPix XE Microbial Colony Picker
Although smaller than other colony pickers on the market, don’t let its size fool you – it doesn’t compromise on results. The QPix XE streamlines your colony picking process, allowing you to…
eBook
How to Implement Colony Picking Workflows with Automation
How to Implement Colony Picking Workflows with Automation
Colony picking represents a powerful tool within the workflow of mammalian cell line development and the study of microbiology.
Application Note
CloneSelect Imager FL fluorescence for rapid day zero monoclonality
CloneSelect Imager FL fluorescence for rapid day zero monoclonality
Gene editing allows DNA manipulation, i.e., addition, deletion, or modification using different tools. Several nucleases for genome editing are now available: zinc finger nucleases (ZFN),…
Application Note
Detect endotoxin with the Kinetic-QCL Kinetic Chromogenic LAL Assay
Detect endotoxin with the Kinetic-QCL Kinetic Chromogenic LAL Assay
Monitoring for contaminants is a critical step during the production process in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. A frequent contaminant, endotoxin, can cause fever,…
Application Note
Accelerating Gene Edited Cell Lines with the CloneSelect Imager FL
Accelerating Gene Edited Cell Lines with the CloneSelect Imager FL
Gene editing technology allows the manipulations at the DNA level where it is deleted, added, or modified using various tools.
eBook
The Ultimate Guide to Microplate Reader Solutions
The Ultimate Guide to Microplate Reader Solutions
Evaluating microplate readers doesn’t have to be overwhelming. First, consider your application needs. If your budget is modest, a single-mode reader dedicated to your main application may b…
Blog
Lab Automation 101: Inside Access From Our Subject Matter Expert
Lab Automation 101: Inside Access From Our Subject Matter Expert
In life sciences, more is more. Obtaining a great body of data that is consistent and insightful to get a qualitative and quantitative overview of your model is critical. However,…
Application Note
A microfluidics-based, single cell printing and microplate imaging workflow optimized for efficiency, viability and monoclonality report generation
A microfluidics-based, single cell printing and microplate imaging workflow optimized for efficiency, viability and monoclonality report generation
In this app note, we demonstrate a unified workflow that combines single cell deposition and clonality verification. We couple the use of the SCP and CSI to deposit single cells into a…
Application Note
Monitor for endotoxin with the SpectraMax ABS Plus Microplate Reader
Monitor for endotoxin with the SpectraMax ABS Plus Microplate Reader
Monitoring for contaminants is a critical step during the production process in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
Application Note
Determine total aflatoxin in cannabis using an ELISA method
Determine total aflatoxin in cannabis using an ELISA method
As cannabis is legalized in more states across the US, state agencies are setting their own regulations and requirements for growers, retailers, and testing laboratories. For example, in…
Application Note
Quantifying gluten in beer using an ASBC-approved ELISA method
Quantifying gluten in beer using an ASBC-approved ELISA method
With the recent rise in the prevalence of celiac disease, monitoring gluten levels in food and beverage has become increasingly important as more people strive to avoid gluten.
Application Note
Improved productivity of cell line development using fully integrated automated solutions: a series of case studies with the CloneSelect Imager
Improved productivity of cell line development using fully integrated automated solutions: a series of case studies with the CloneSelect Imager
Cell line development requires screening tens of thousands of clones in order to find the few clones that are stable, grow well, and produce high yields of bioproduct. In addition to…
Application Note
High-throughput melamine detection with Romer Labs AgraQuant Melamine Assays
High-throughput melamine detection with Romer Labs AgraQuant Melamine Assays
The organic base melamine is used to make a number of products, including plastics, flame retardants, pigments, and fertilizers. The practice of adding melamine to animal feed and foods for…
Application Note
Phenolic compounds measurement in red wines
Phenolic compounds measurement in red wines
Measurement of tannin, iron-reactive phenolics, anthocyanin and polymeric pigment in red wine is an important part of quality control in the wine industry. Precise and reliable measurement…
Application Note
High-throughput melamine detection with Beacon Analytical Systems Melamine Plate Kit
High-throughput melamine detection with Beacon Analytical Systems Melamine Plate Kit
The organic base melamine is used to make a number of products, including plastics, flame retardants, pigments, and fertilizers. The practice of adding melamine to animal feed and foods for…
Application Note
Residual sugar measurement in wine using the SpectraMax Plus 384 Microplate Reader
Residual sugar measurement in wine using the SpectraMax Plus 384 Microplate Reader
Analysis of malic acid, residual sugar, volatile acidity and ammonia is very important in quality control during wine production. Enzymatic assays carried out in microplate format are…
Application Note
L-malic acid measurement in wines using the SpectraMax Plus 384 Microplate Reader
L-malic acid measurement in wines using the SpectraMax Plus 384 Microplate Reader
Analysis of malic acid, residual sugar, volatile acidity and ammonia is very important for quality control during wine production. Enzymatic assays carried out in microplate format are…
Application Note
High-throughput melamine detection with Abraxis Melamine ELISA Kit
High-throughput melamine detection with Abraxis Melamine ELISA Kit
The organic base melamine is used to make a number of products, including plastics, flame retardants, pigments, and fertilizers. The practice of adding melamine to animal feed and foods for…
Application Note
Beer analysis using the QuickDrop UV-Vis Spectrophotometer
Beer analysis using the QuickDrop UV-Vis Spectrophotometer
Beer is one of the world’s most popular beverages, and it can be dated back as early as 6000 BCE from Sumerian artifacts1. The brewing process mainly involves water, a sugar source,…