Roka Bioscience introduced the Atlas on Tour vehicle at the 2012 International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. The custom-built 40-foot vehicle features a working Atlas System and provides an informational forum for food safety laboratories. The vehicle offers food safety professionals the opportunity to experience a full demonstration of the Atlas System, as well as interactive presentations on the technologies that power the system. The vehicle also contains a conference area where participants can discuss their specific testing needs with Roka Applications Specialists.
"The IAFP Meeting was the ideal location for introducing our Atlas on Tour vehicle to the Food Safety Industry and launching the tour," explained Paul Thomas, CEO and President of Roka Bioscience. "The tour gives our customers rare, direct access to a system that can revolutionize their laboratory testing. This type of innovation has to be shared, and we are thrilled to do so in such a personal and accessible way."
IAFP marks the first public stop for the Atlas on Tour vehicle. From there, the tour will take Roka and its Atlas System to industry, government, and academic sites, and trade shows across the United States. Roka's Atlas on Tour website www.atlasontour.com provides users with more details on the tour, the vehicle, and the Atlas System, as well as information on scheduling a visit at their location.
The Atlas System is an innovative fully automated molecular instrument for the detection of pathogens in food and environmental samples. This instrument utilizes a simple three-step procedure -- Enrich, Transfer, Automate -- and is capable of processing over 300 samples in 8 hours. The system's continuous workflow and high throughput provides greater efficiency, flexibility, and dynamic scalability to meet the ever-increasing demands placed on food safety laboratories. Customer evaluations have demonstrated a reduction in direct labor costs with the Atlas System in side-by-side comparisons with leading competitive methods.
The initial menu for the Atlas System includes the Atlas Salmonella Detection Assay and the Atlas Listeria Detection Assay, both of which are AOAC-RI certified. Additional assays are currently in development.