What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Laboratory-based or post-production quality control (QC) methods do not provide food and pharmaceutical processors with access to information in real-time, and therefore delaying action that can lead to product discard, with cost and environmental implications, or worse off-spec product entering the market.
There is increasing industry interest in shifting from these laboratory-based or post-production QC methods to in-line monitoring of product and process parameters during processing. The main drivers for this interest are the need to improve product quality (or to obtain standardised quality) and safety, to increase process efficiencies, to reduce waste and off spec product discard, as well as increasing awareness of the imperative of ICT adoption to remain competitive in our new Digital data-driven era.
Our affordable IR-spectroscopy-based VISUM platform enables the rapid, easy integration and customisation of in-process chemical monitoring solutions for improved process control for product quality and process efficiencies.
Why is it important for society?
Food quality is high on consumer, political and food industry agendas worldwide. The EC has identified food quality and safety as one of its top priorities and is one of the key societal challenges to be addressed during Horizon 2020. Likewise, the quality and safety of drugs is of major relevance for society.
What are the overall objectives?
VISUM is a cloud-enabled Near Infra-Red (NIR) spectroscopy integration platform for customisation of affordable, real-time chemical monitoring solutions in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
NIR is a non-destructive, reliable and accurate technique for monitoring chemical and physical parameters during food and pharmaceutical processing. However, the power of NIR is not being fully harnessed by industry because typical NIR lab analysers are expensive to buy and maintain and specialist knowledge is required to set up and maintain current systems. Moreover, product, production facilities and monitoring challenges differ for each application and as such generic systems are not as simple as “plug and play”.
The VISUM platform overcomes limitations opening up the use of NIR-based technology in effective mini PAT solutions. Our VISUM platform enables rapid and cost-effective customisation of the core technology with the vision of mainstreaming the adoption of NIR-based technology in the European and global food and pharma industries for product quality and standardisation, and greater process efficiencies, reduced waste and environmental impact. Moreover, the VISUM Cloud leverages the Internet-of-Things towards the Industry 4.0 paradigm.
In relation to the societal relevance of VISUM, food quality is high on consumer, political and food industry agendas worldwide. The EC has identified food quality and safety as one of its top priorities and is one of the key societal challenges to be addressed during Horizon 2020. Likewise, the quality and safety of drugs is of major relevance for society. VISUM equips the pharmaceutical industry with in-process monitoring and control systems during continuous production, resulting in i. Moreover, the VISUM system also holds benefits for R&D in the pharma sector as online analytics in pilot facilities could accelerate developments.
Through the SME Instrument, we accelerated the final stages of development of our affordable IR-spectroscopy-based VISUM platform and geared up for the commercialisation of in the food and pharmaceutical industries, with the Value Proposition of enabling the rapid, easy integration and customisation of in-process chemical monitoring solutions for improved process control for product quality and process efficiencies.
