{"id":957,"date":"2020-04-01T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/?p=957"},"modified":"2023-11-20T12:47:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T12:47:22","slug":"bactusense-detecting-pathogens-in-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/bactusense-detecting-pathogens-in-food\/","title":{"rendered":"BactuSense | Detecting pathogens in food"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Food Tech is a hot industry, and The Kitchen<\/strong> is a Food Tech incubator that successfully confronts some of the industry\u2019s most cutting-edge challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach year, we\u2019ll invest in three or four promising Food Tech start-ups\u201d, says Jonathan Berger, CEO of The Kitchen.<\/strong> \u201cEach company receives individual support from the incubator staff and a team of experts that Strauss Group, with its vast pool of knowledge, makes available to us. We can provide startups with know-how and expertise on every issue that challenges them \u2013 from food engineering to regulation, and from manufacturing to marketing and consumer behavior. We offer advice and know-how free of charge, as part of the support the incubator provides to its portfolio companies. The startups can also benefit from Strauss Group\u2019s global contacts, which include PepsiCo, Danone, other multinational food giants, and even conglomerates such as [Chinese consumer electronics company] Haier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya Eldan, Director of the Israel Innovation Authority’s Startup Division,<\/strong> adds: \u201cThe Israel Innovation Authority\u2019s incubator program gives technological and biotech start-ups a platform for innovation, and it makes them visible to Israeli and foreign corporations, mainly for the added value that they can bring to the incubator\u2019s start-ups. The Kitchen is an independent incubator, but its startups benefit from Strauss Group\u2019s global contacts and from access to technological infrastructure, market knowledge, marketing channels, and specialized expertise. A startup requires all those things to succeed, and Israeli startups in the food sector haven\u2019t had them available. Thanks to the incubator, which was set up with the Authority\u2019s support, Israel has a new Food Tech ecosystem that it didn\u2019t have just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A microchip that identifies bacteria in food<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast summer, Salmonella was found in cornflakes. That was all the public relations we needed,\u201d says Eyal Yoskovitz, CEO of BactuSense Technologies.<\/strong> Another of The Kitchen\u2019s start-ups, Yoskovitz\u2019s company is developing a near-real-time technology for detecting and identifying live bacteria in food products.

\u201cMy entrepreneurial job is easy,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I don\u2019t have to convince anyone in any company that they need what we\u2019re developing. The market is hungry for a solution.\u201d There is a small group of disease-causing bacteria, or pathogens, responsible for most of the problems. The most well-known are Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli.

\u201cThe damage that can be caused to food manufacturers is not only the cost of recalling products, but also the burden of storage costs, and the loss of sales. There\u2019s also the immense damage to their reputation,\u201d explains Yoskovitz. \u201cCompanies can easily be bankrupted by such incidents.\u201d

Every food product in Israel must be tested for pathogens. Today, the tests require two to three days of letting bacteria grow. Faster methods do exist, but they are much more expensive.

The BactuSense solution consists of two parts: a microchip and an optical sensor. \u201cThe chip is full of tiny holes that trap bacteria,\u201d explains Yoskovitz. \u201cThe chip is coated with a special material where the bacteria settle. They enter the holes and are trapped there. When light is reflected, the trapped bacteria change the light slightly. The sensor picks up the difference and decodes it, and the detector says: \u2018Bacteria alert!\u2019

\u201cOur technology can detect small concentrations of bacteria. Our goal is to identify as few as 100 bacteria per milliliter. That\u2019s low density, but the industry would rather catch bacteria without waiting for them to multiply. The advantage of our product is that it produces results quickly and it\u2019s easy to operate. And the beauty of our solution is that it can tell dead bacteria from live bacteria. By adjusting the chip, we can also target only a particular type of bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWith the help of Strauss Group quality assurance experts, we can choose objectives for the development process. We\u2019ve targeted low cost,\u201d says Yoskovitz, \u201cand we can achieve that. Our components are inexpensive, our production methods are familiar ones, and the chemical coating isn\u2019t complicated. Today\u2019s market stresses the need for a solution like ours. Clean, healthy food is the focus of increasing legislation, regulation, and public demand. Regarding market size, we\u2019re talking about reaching a food testing market of $15\u201320 billion within five years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n