Food companies often use external labs to test food samples, which takes days to generate results. This delay often leads to fraud or recalls.
Our DNA detection kits are performed on-site by customer staff and results are available after 30 minutes or within 1 working shift, depending on the test.
Current Status
Our DNAFoil kit is already in the market to detect: Porcine DNA, Vegetal DNA, microbial DNA among others. Our range of tests is always being expanded, in order to meet the demand from the market.
Market
The globalization of food supply, growing public concern, increasingly stringent regulations, and advancements in the latest technology for food testing are driving strong growth in the food testing market: the global market for food testing services is projected to reach US$21.4 billion by 2024.
Analysts often segment the market into food-testing driven by concerns with food safety, by concerns with food authentication and by concerns with food contamination.
The leading region for both food safety and supply chain traceability testing is Europe, it accounts for close to a third of the global market, but this is a global issue, as illustrated by the growth in food trade between Asian nations that requires compliance with quality standards of the importing nations such that the Asia-Pacific region is predicted to register the fastest CAGR in the World (8.1%).
Problem or Opportunity
The food industry transforms raw materials into finished products, ready to ship, increasingly quickly. Samples taken from these production processes are sent to laboratories for testing and certificates are then returned in 1-7 days. Waiting for the results, prior to release for distribution, leads to an uneconomic inventory (4-7 days) and, once released, reduced shelf-lives. Consequently, most production is shipped to market before the test results have been received. In the event of an adverse test result, this delay increases the costs and risks possible recalls of the products released into the market.
There are 30 food recalls per week in North America and Europe and these each cost, on average, USD10 million (according to Swiss Re), excluding litigation and brand damage.
The industry is looking for rapid on-site testing.
Solution (product or service)
DNAFoil®
Our DNAFoil® tests are performed on-site, rapidly, using customer personnel. Results can be provided within 30 minutes and it replaces the need to send samples to the lab.
2016
- MassChallenge, gold prize for signing the most commercial contracts during the incubation period
2017
- Considered “One of the 12 firms to watch in 2018”, by Food Quality News
2018
- Became a member of the European network “EIT-Food Rising Food Stars”, a group of outstanding agri-food young companies
- Winner of Agri&Co challenge, a network of innovative companies and projects initiated by the State of Fribourg, Switzerland
- First prize at Open Innovation Forum, hosted by the University of Cambridge
- Nominated by Venturelab as one of the 10 Swiss start-ups shaping the future of agriculture and agribusiness
2019
- Part of a limited hand-picked number of companies selected to present to industry leaders like Procter & Gamble, Cargill and Coca-Cola at Deep Tech on Display Corporate Day, organized by European Innovation Council (EIC)
- First Prize in the Autonomous Systems competition, organized by Startup INVEST to support innovative solutions
- One of 8 winners of the European Bio Economy Venture Forum, organized by TechTour to promote the transition to a circular economy
