A new partnership between five innovative European companies and research institutions is receiving funding from EIT Food, in order to build a diagnostic platform to improve the on-site testing capacity of the food industry, delivering results in less than one hour. EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted.
A joint project between SwissDeCode (CH), Microbion (IT), IATA CSIC (ES), University of Helsinki (FI) and Eurofins (FR) has been awarded €790k from EIT Food, as part of the COVID-19 Rapid Response Call for Innovation projects. This funding will support the development of a platform to help food companies to quickly detect the presence of Coronavirus on food processing surfaces.
In light of the challenges faced by the food industry due to the COVID-19 crisis, fine monitoring of the virus will continue to be a must, even in a post-crisis phase. The platform developed will allow the food industry to minimise the chance of disruption caused by contaminated working environments or food products. The platform is an automated testing device which will be installed directly at the food processing facilities, providing results in less than 1 hour with no need for complex instrumentation or specialised personnel.
The flexibility of this technology allows the incorporation of a varied group of tests within the food industry, including other emerging viruses. The development and validation of the device will be ongoing during the next few months and the partners expect that it will be market-ready by the end of the year. For more visit swissdecode.com (Photo by John Lambeth/Pexels)
