Food Safety Testing is certainly a fast-growing market, driven by the continuous raising of rule standards and a growing awareness of the final consumers, proved and amplified by the strong media coverage due to increasingly frequent alarms for cases of contamination or adulteration.
After the 24 months of the project development, the partners will enter the food testing market with the new device completely setup and optimized, selling as well customized cartridges following the customers’ requirements. According to the SME INSTRUMENT PHASE 1 outputs, ProXentia established, as the most convenient strategy that the STEFY initial commercialization will start by approaching the food and wine producers and grain millers fields.
After the STEFY project conclusion, ProXentia aims to maintain a lean structure and a strong R&D department. ODL is the right partner for all the operations concerning the manufacturing of the reader and the cartridge by assembly and checking all the parts coming from the suppliers. Enologica Vason, is an international group and pioneer in oenological technologies. They have already expressed the interest in the distribution of the STEFY products for the wine production chain all around the world.
The project has given to ProXentia the chance to invest in human resources and recruit 3 research, all of a high professional profile and now involved in the research and industrialization process of the new products of ProXentia.
The STEFY project accomplishes the following EU challenges:
The market need of fast, cheap and easy-to-use tests for food quality control is driven by several European regulations that make food manufacturers responsible for food safety, thus forcing them to perform continuous quality controls in their production chain. Such controls represent an important cost for food companies, so they are strongly oriented to find out innovative solutions able to reduce the cost and the time necessary to perform safety tests.
The social problem of the present time is related to the dramatic rise of allergic diseases worldwide, both in developed and developing countries. Globally, 240 – 550 million people suffer from food allergy that significantly affects their quality of life. Moreover, since mycotoxins are known to be genotoxic and carcinogenic, their taking with food should be kept as low as possible. The European Union introduced measures to minimize the presence of mycotoxins in different foodstuffs. Maximum levels of mycotoxins are laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006. Products exceeding the maximum levels are not allowed to be admitted to the food market in the EU.
ProXentia with its device will answer exactly to those growing requirements arising from the new needs of safety in food.
