BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), global leader in providing innovative specialty chemicals to the food service industry, announced today it will partner with Elanco, a division of Eli Lilly, to market Albemarle's portfolio of food-safety products worldwide.

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Expansion of the company's innovative food-safety product portfolio comes at an important time for the beef and poultry processing industry that is in need of solutions to help prevent bacterial contamination in food products. Recent beef recalls, as well as claims by Consumer Reports of increased chicken contamination have elevated public concerns for food safety. Albemarle's proprietary antimicrobial products, Bovibrom(TM) and Avibrom(TM), are recognized by the industry for their effectiveness. This new partnership with Elanco takes Albemarle's leadership in food-safety solutions to a new level, expanding on Albemarle's partnership with Ivy Natural Solutions -- now a part of Elanco -- announced earlier this year.

"We are pleased to partner with Elanco. Together, our teams will pursue new opportunities to assist our customers with quality assurance compliance in the food processing industry," said Tina Craft, Albemarle's specialty bromides product manager. "Elanco's focus on providing products for meat packers and poultry processors is a great complement to our sales and marketing efforts, as they share our commitment to superior customer service and our focus on providing value-added solutions to our clients. We look forward to working with Elanco to offer our quality food-safety products."

"Elanco looks forward to partnering with Albemarle, through our Elanco Food Solutions business, to provide integrated pre- and post-harvest technologies for meat and poultry packers and processors around the world," said K. Douglas Miller, PhD, director of Elanco Food Solutions. "We have been marketing one of Albemarle's antimicrobials to beef packers and we are excited to expand our relationship with the company as we introduce additional products to the meat and poultry industries."

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts, and Fine Chemicals. Albemarle employs over 4,100 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. To learn more, visit www.albemarle.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE Albemarle Corporation