Marks & Spencer to use Whatman DNA Technology

Whatman plc announces first collaboration with major food retailer

13-Mar-2001

Whatman today announces it has entered into a unique collaboration with Marks & Spencer. Through use of Whatman's DNA technology, Marks & Spencer looks set to lead the way in the ultimate traceability of food products. Use of this technology will enable the retailer to know the precise origin of raw meat products, right down to the specific animal. This is the first collaboration of its kind for Whatman, which anticipates a number of other key food producers and retailers following Marks & Spencer's lead in this area.

Whatman is an international leader in separations technology and focuses its business on specific segments of the laboratory filtration and healthcare markets including DNA storage, isolation and purification. It is this DNA separation technology which will enable Marks & Spencer to retain detailed information on a food products' origins and processing in an easy-to-store format. Should the retailer need to track back to this information at a later date, it just has to conduct a "swab" test on the processed product to identify the product's unique origin.

Commenting on the collaboration, David Smith, Chief Executive Officer, of Whatman, said:

“Marks & Spencer is an industry leader for the supply and sale of quality foodstuffs - the combination of its expertise with Whatman's proprietary DNA technology will lead to a unique partnership of global brand names. It also represents an exciting opportunity to develop further our DNA technology and its applications with Marks & Spencer's resources in order to produce new industry standards.”

David Gregory, Head of Food Technology at Marks & Spencer, added:

“Food safety is paramount to us and one of our key principles has always been to have the highest degree of traceability - this unique partnership with Whatman takes food traceability to new heights.

The potential of this simple DNA technology means we can significantly enhance the integrity of our products to standards previously only dreamt of - on a wide scale at relatively low cost.”

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/1791/marks-spencer-to-use-whatman-dna-technology.html