THE PROBLEM: Controlling the safety of the agrifood chain from farm to fork is an essential and time consuming-task enforced by multitude of national and international regulations. In the EU 100.000 impartial, independent, well-trained staff with specific inspection competences check 25 Million operators along the agrifood chain for the safety of 500 million consumers.
Still, more than 97% of European food products contain pesticide residues, according to analyses carried out by the EU’s national authorities (Source); in fact, annual compilations showed that of the 84,341 samples of produce from conventional agriculture analysed, 97.2% contained traces of one or more of 774 pesticides (Source).
This is a global problem. More than 85% of fruit and vegetables in the U.S. contain pesticide residues according to the U.S. FDA. The Center for Disease Control & Prevention states that the average American has 29 different types of pesticides in his/her body. Apart from pesticides other contaminants must be controlled in the food chain; undesirable bacteria and mould can produce toxins, volatile compounds and a wide variety of chemicals that are hazardous for human and animal health if consumed, inhaled or contacted.
THE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: National enforcement authorities perform controls on farms but also; border controls, during transportation, on food processing plants, wholesalers, supermarkets, retailers and restaurants… So, to prevent legal or quality incidents, Agrifood chain stakeholders (farmers, processing industry, retailers…) must also perform internal controls. Currently there is no in-situ, real time & accurate means to identify and quantify the presence of pesticides and contaminants in food produce.
The current practice to identify pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables is through either gas or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, a lab method that requires bulky equipment, expensive maintenance and expert chemists. In 2016, the America’s food industry had a $55.5 billion safety problem according to Fortune magazine, because of produce recalls and money spent on food testing. The business opportunity lies in coming up with a cheaper method and a smaller device that could be used for field testing, in each of the transaction steps of the agrifood chain.
1. FARM→COOPERATIVE→WHOLESALER→PROCESSING→RETAIL→SERVICES→CONSUMER
OUR GAME CHANGING SOLUTION: A portable, accurate, automatic and affordable device that can detect pesticides and other contaminants in food at parts per million (PPM) and parts per billion (PPB) levels, in few seconds, by using our own disruptive method based on RAMAN-SERs spectroscopy.
RAMAN spectroscopy and SERS, and added new developments allow quick, simple and affordable detection of contaminants in food (United States Provisional Patent Application No. 62/436,571). The POC was developed in conjunction with input from food industry professionals.
OUR BUSINESS MODEL: INSPECTO offers three services; (1) sale/lease of the Inspecto’s device & licensing, (2) refill of Inspecto’s disposable SERS cartridges, and (3) subscription to Inspecto’s data analisys.62/436,571).
