Food and Environmental Safety Advanced with Thermo Fisher’s First-of-Its-Kind Orbitrap Mass Detector
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the global leader in serving science, has unveiled a groundbreaking innovation designed to transform how laboratories approach environmental and food safety testing. The company introduced the Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap Exploris™ EFOX Mass Detector, the world’s first high-resolution accurate mass (HRAM) Orbitrap system engineered specifically for these sectors. This new detector represents a major leap forward in combating today’s pressing global challenges surrounding food and water safety, particularly in detecting persistent and emerging contaminants.
Across the globe, regulators and public health agencies are grappling with contaminants that are notoriously difficult to monitor and eliminate. Among the most persistent are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—often called “forever chemicals”—as well as pesticides, industrial pollutants, and organic residues that threaten ecosystems and human health. The Orbitrap Exploris EFOX, named for Environmental and Food Organic Xenobiotics, is designed to help laboratories identify and quantify these substances with greater precision, speed, and reliability than ever before.
Unlike many high-resolution mass spectrometry systems currently in use, which are primarily research platforms adapted for routine testing, the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX is purpose-built for day-to-day operations. It combines research-grade analytical power with the simplicity and speed that environmental and food safety labs require. Drawing on Thermo Fisher’s award-winning Orbitrap technology—long trusted in proteomics and metabolomics research—the new EFOX detector delivers the same exceptional mass accuracy and sensitivity but in a streamlined, intuitive system tailored for regulatory testing environments.
One of the standout features of the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX is its unparalleled PFAS detection capability. The system can detect these chemicals at trace levels, allowing laboratories to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards. With minimal setup requirements, users can move from sample to result in just minutes, maintaining both data quality and throughput. This combination of speed and sensitivity makes the platform ideal for labs that must balance tight deadlines, budget constraints, and rising sample volumes.
Lidija Raicevic, vice president and environmental and food safety lead at Thermo Fisher Scientific, emphasized the importance of the innovation:
“As environmental and food safety laboratories face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more accurate results under tight budgets and stringent regulatory requirements, the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX significantly lightens the workload for PFAS, pesticides, and other contaminant testing. Offering an easy-to-use, high-resolution mass detector helps ensure more labs can conduct critical full-scan, accurate mass high-resolution data monitoring, provide local testing across more areas of concern, and ultimately accelerate quality controls to make our environment and food safer.”
The Orbitrap Exploris EFOX takes a holistic approach to testing by capturing full-scan, high-resolution data from every sample. This comprehensive data collection provides an essential advantage: the ability to conduct retrospective analyses. If new contaminants are identified or regulations change, labs can revisit previously collected data without the need to reprocess samples. This saves both time and cost while enabling labs to stay ahead of evolving global safety standards.
Moreover, the detector comes with preconfigured workflows for key environmental and food contaminants, eliminating the need for lengthy method development. Labs can achieve regulatory compliance faster, reduce operational costs, and focus resources on data interpretation rather than setup.
Ease of use is a central design philosophy behind the new Orbitrap system. It is fully integrated with the Thermo Scientific Chromeleon™ Chromatography Data System (CDS), a platform known for its intuitive interface and powerful data management capabilities. The integration simplifies system control, data processing, and reporting, significantly minimizing training time for technicians. In addition, it shortens review cycles and expedites the delivery of critical insights that inform public health and safety decisions.
When paired with the Thermo Scientific Vanquish™ dual-channel UHPLC system, the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX delivers enhanced productivity and reliability. The combined setup offers laboratories unmatched analytical flexibility—whether running targeted analyses for known contaminants or untargeted screening for unknown compounds. This integrated system ensures that every step, from separation to detection to reporting, operates seamlessly to produce accurate, reproducible results.
Beyond its immediate applications in environmental and food testing, the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX underscores Thermo Fisher Scientific’s broader mission to empower scientists and laboratories to protect public health. By providing a solution that merges innovation, precision, and simplicity, the company is helping the testing community confront one of the most complex challenges of modern science: ensuring clean water, safe food, and a sustainable environment.
The introduction of the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX also highlights Thermo Fisher’s ongoing commitment to supporting multiple analytical workflows. While the new Orbitrap system represents a milestone for HRAM technology, the company continues to back triple quadrupole mass spectrometry users with complementary instruments. Thermo Fisher announced the TSQ Altis™ Plus EFOX MS, a dedicated edition of its renowned TSQ Altis Plus mass spectrometer, specially optimized for environmental and food applications. This ensures that laboratories can choose the ideal platform—whether they prioritize high-resolution discovery analysis or targeted quantitation—without compromising on performance or compliance.
Together, the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX and TSQ Altis Plus EFOX MS create a comprehensive ecosystem of mass spectrometry solutions for laboratories at every level of testing sophistication. Both systems support Thermo Fisher’s goal of helping customers generate richer, compliant data faster, empowering them to identify potential risks sooner and take corrective actions that safeguard communities.
As global awareness grows around pollutants like PFAS, microplastics, and pesticide residues, the demand for advanced testing technologies continues to rise. Governments are tightening limits, consumers are demanding transparency, and industries are seeking more sustainable practices. The launch of the Orbitrap Exploris EFOX comes at a pivotal moment, offering laboratories the precision tools needed to address these demands effectively.
In essence, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s latest innovation redefines what is possible in environmental and food safety testing. The Orbitrap Exploris EFOX bridges the gap between high-performance research instruments and routine lab operations, making high-resolution mass spectrometry accessible, efficient, and actionable for the professionals tasked with protecting our planet’s most vital resources.
With this launch, Thermo Fisher once again demonstrates its leadership in analytical science—delivering solutions that not only enhance laboratory performance but also contribute to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.
