Products and Services to Inform and Support Food Companies

The information included in this section has been supplied by providers of food industry products and services and has been edited for content, clarity, and space.

A COMPREHENSIVE GRAIN track-and-trace system, SureTrack PRO provides traceability that extends from seed bag to finished product. With the PRO integrated software and hardware solution, processors, merchandisers, and retailers can accomplish the following: source the quality, quantity, and characteristics of grain needed to fulfill orders directly from farmers; develop grower programs to streamline sourcing and procurement; negotiate and contract with farmers without a middleman; remotely monitor stored grain to ensure quality; schedule grain deliveries from farm to processing facility, keeping identity-preserved grain safe and secure from cross contamination; and manage incoming resources to track plant inventory, preventing gaps in production. AGI SureTrack, agisuretrack.com

A NEW TEMPERATURE probe housed in a plastic casing made from a unique polymer is metal detectable and X-ray visible. This serves to prevent recalls caused by foreign body contamination. It also ensures that products are sorted and cooked at the right temperatures and that equipment is functioning at the correct levels. Other new product launches from Detectamet include pressurized cryo ink pens, which can write fluently on wet and greasy surfaces and can also work in freezers and other cold storage. The company has also released fully detectable (X-ray and metal detector) pen refills. Detectamet, dectectamet.co.uk

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS AND tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education are available from Elsevier. They include ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey, and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, 40,000 e-book titles, and many iconic reference works. A fast-growing open access publisher, Elsevier has more than 370 gold open access titles and 1,900 hybrid journals that publish open access articles. This year, Elsevier’s food science publishing program has released new titles on childhood obesity, wound healing tissue repair and regeneration in diabetes, food security and sustainability, agronomy, and functional food ingredients from plants, among others. Elsevier, elsevier.com

AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE platform that helps consumer packaged goods companies explore product concepts, predict consumer preferences, and identify preferred flavor profiles, Gastrograph AI shortens time to market and reduces the risk of product failure. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting necessary social distancing protocols have limited companies’ ability to collect consumer preference data using traditional techniques, such as central location tests and focus groups. In this environment, Gastrograph AI can play a valuable role in supporting product innovation, tapping into what the company bills as “the world’s largest sensory dataset.” Gastrograph AI, gastrograph.com

A MORE EFFICIENT ordering process, simplified quality assurance/quality control document display names, and faster page rendering are among the new features in the e-commerce marketplace and seller systems from ingredientsonline.com. The systems now run on current cloud technology from Amazon Web Services. Enhancements to site navigation will make it simpler for customers to find raw ingredients, the company reports. Other improvements include streamlined inventory and syncing functions, which allow for increased control over the creation and management of product listings. ingredientsonline.com

AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE–enabled food analytics module from Jovian Technologies allows food and beverage companies to perform analytics based on market leaders, customer competitive intelligence, and ingredient trends. Offered as a software subscription service, the module helps users create new products and manage product categories, manage ingredients and formulation, and conduct product ideation. It enables comparison of more than 250,000 food products. Jovian has run pre-product pilots with 58 private label and branded food and beverage companies, including two Fortune 500 companies. Jovian Technologies, jovianinc.com

AN ADVANCED EDIBLE coating used to extend shelf life, maintain quality, and preserve the freshness of a wide range of whole fruits and vegetables, Semperfresh 1.9 is available from AgriCoat-NatureSeal, a subsidiary of Mantrose-Haeuser. The newest addition to the Semperfresh line of coatings is designed for ease of use and quick drying at the packing house or coating facility. Applications include stone fruit, pineapple, melon, avocados, citrus fruit, pears, apples, sweet cherries, and other tropical fruits. Semperfresh 1.9 forms an invisible, edible, and biodegradable protective film that creates a modified atmosphere inside individual fruits. Respiration is slowed and shelf life is extended. Semperfresh 1.9 provides additional value as a plastic-free packaging solution and has shown promise in combating common produce disorders such as chilling injury and skin and rind pitting. Mantrose-Haeuser, mantrose.com

SPRAY-DRYING HAS been added to the fermentation and R&D capabilities at Martech Research. Services range from bench scale to pilot scale to large scale/full production. Martech’s newly installed rotary atomized 4-meter spray-dryer with a water evaporation rate of 750 pounds per hour (fluidized bed dryer as second-stage CIP included) is operational. Fermen-tation production batches are available in both liquids and solids in a variety of packaging sizes. The facility features two fully equipped laboratories that offer complete research and development services. Martech Research, martechresearch.com

EVEN IN CHALLENGING times like the present, RTI Innovation Advisors works to ensure that clients understand the future and can identify emerging opportunities, markets, customer segments, and threats with enough time and information to take action. Using a structured methodology called foresighting, RTI helps companies organize core teams and key stakeholders, determine goals and objectives, and frame exploration. The advisory group assesses critical uncertainties and emergent future themes and envisions and co-creates alternate future scenarios to allow companies to evaluate their impact on corporate strategy and business plans. RTI Innovation Advisors, rtiinnovationadvisors.org

A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION that provides full-service assistance to food processors, the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre delivers expertise in food and process development, interim processing, extrusion technology, skills development, food safety education and training, quality assurance, technology transfer, and path finding. The food center has a global reputation as a leader in converting plant-based protein though new product development, ingredient validation, and extrusion technology. Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre. foodcentre.sk.ca

A SPECIALIST IN formulation and process development, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is a nonprofit, contract R&D organization with more than 70 years of experience in food-related sciences, including microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation technologies. SwRI now offers low-temperature spray-drying technology to support microencapsulation, making spray-drying an option for heat-sensitive and volatile materials that it typically isn’t suited for. SwRI has FDA-inspected facilities with clean rooms that meet class standards of 10,000 to 100,000 particles per cubic foot. The institute’s food-related capabilities also include antimicrobial materials, analytical chemistry, testing and failure analysis, materials engineering for food applications, and manufacturing systems. Southwest Research Institute, swri.org