Pioneering the certificate-as-a-service in food testing
It doesn’t seem like a day goes by when there’s not another food-related recall in the news. “Food recalls cost millions of euro and can cause significant and often lasting damage to a company’s brand,” says Gianpaolo Rando, CTO and co-founder of SwissDeCode(opens in new window), a company dedicated to helping the food industry grow, produce and trade authentic food by offering rapid certification solutions. Recalls also put the trust and well-being of consumers at risk. “It can take a lab up to seven days to detect food adulteration,” adds Rando. For Rando, that’s seven too many days. “Following the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are now well aware that testing technologies can give acceptable results in just a handful of minutes,” he says. This is why SwissDeCode is working to speed up the certification process. With the support of the EU-funded BEAMitup project(opens in new window), the company has developed and tested a platform that provides rapid DNA-based screening of food products. “Our patented solution can confirm composition authenticity or identify the presence of undesirable contaminants like GMOs in corn, milk, pork and countless other commodities in a few minutes and at the point of production,” notes Rando.
Faster results and less room for error
The BEAMitup platform consists of hardware, capsules and a cloud solution all packaged together in an automated lab kiosk. “BEAMitup is an automated platform that can prepare samples and run multiple tests simultaneously with zero human intervention,” explains Rando. “Thanks to its connection to the cloud, you can receive certified results to share with business partners, clients and authorities.” Once installed on-site, a company can perform a predefined number of tests per week. When a food product clears the screening, it is issued an ISO 17025 certificate that provides assurance that a product complies with regulatory standards. Companies are charged per certificate of analysis issued. “BEAMitup offers an array of benefits, including speedy results, less risk of human errors, and certificates of analysis that are accepted around the world,” adds Rando.
The trust factor
In developing the platform, SwissDeCode partnered with a leading grain trader and, together, analysed hundreds of samples per day. According to Rando, the data and know-how that this process provided gives the company a unique competitive advantage – one that will be difficult for other companies to replicate. “Thanks to the EU funding, SwissDeCode is now positioned as the only certificate-as-a-service provider for food testing,” he remarks. The company is currently working to build partnerships with leading players in the testing, inspection and certification industries. One of those partners is a Japanese dairy company(opens in new window) which is putting a label on their milk to tell consumers that it has been tested by SwissDeCode. “Trust is fast becoming the most important ingredient,” concludes Rando. “By proposing a better way to test, inspect and certify food, we help companies deliver the level of trust their customers expect.”
