Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the food industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked food grading solutions.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Food Grading Solutions out of 157
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 157 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 FoodTech startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 152 food grading solutions, get in touch.
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qZense Labs develops Fresh Food Management Solutions
Traditionally, food grading is done manually and it also involves destructive testing for reliable results, leading to food waste. To tackle this problem, startups are offering solutions that sense the quality of the food without causing any damage to the food item. For this, the startups utilize technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and spectroscopy.
Indian startup qZense Labs offers two end-to-end IoT solutions for food management that grade and predict the condition of fresh food. Q-Scan is a handheld device that uses near-infrared spectral imaging to detect spoilage in fresh foods like fruits. Q-Logs, on the other hand, uses olfactory sensors in storage to track changes in the state of fresh food. The startup offers a web dashboard to gather insights on inventories and real-time alerts on internal spoilage and ripeness besides predicting shelf life.
Spidfier advances Seafood Quality Checks
Fish, especially from seas and oceans, spoil faster than meat. So, storing them is more critical. Besides that, mislabeled seafood often makes customers overpay considering them as premium species. Additionally, it confuses food safety inspectors. So, it becomes necessary to test them more efficiently for grading. To enable this, food tech startups are deploying DNA sequencing to check the quality of seafood. This enables fish processors, distributors, sellers, as well as consumers, to correctly identify the species, detect pathogens or epigenetic changes, and freshness levels, among other factors.
Hong Kong-based startup Spidfier is a Chinese startup that offers a lab-in-a-box fish identifier for checking the quality of seafood. It uses DNA sequencing and machine learning algorithms to identify fish. It detects bacteria, viruses, or parasites present in the sample and also measures epigenetic changes in DNA due to environmental factors. By detecting for how long a sample has been unfrozen, it provides information on the freshness of the fish. This provides transparency for customers and enables fish distributors and retailers to maintain the quality of their products.
TeakOrigin provides Food Nutrition Measurement
Food that appears identical from the outside need not necessarily have the same nutrient value. For example, two identical apples from the same orchid, picked at the same time and shipped in similar conditions may contain varying amounts of vitamins and minerals. Startups are offering solutions that measure nutrient levels without causing any damage to the food items and enable food retailers to grade them on the basis of their nutrient content.
US-based startup TeakOrigin offers food nutrition measurement for retailers. The solution conducts the nutrition assessment on-site and the process is non-destructive to food. The startup collects nutrition data from supermarkets and measures nutrients inside thirteen of the most popular produce varieties per store. With this data, food retailers then answer critical questions about the food they sell and grade them based on their nutrient levels.
UBI Meat Experts enables Meat Quality Control
Food quality inspection is an integral part of food grading and also ensures food safety. As a result, startups are offering quality control and inspection services to food producers, importers, and suppliers utilizing AI. After inspection, the results are produced in the form of audit reports. This reduces the workload of food companies to conduct the inspections.
UBI Meat Experts is an Uruguay-based startup that provides an AI-based meat grading platform for beef, pork, chicken, and fish. The production quality control involves visual inspection of livestock, followed by monitoring the quality of cuts and meat pH. In the pre-shipment inspection, the startup controls the temperature, color, and odor, and checks the product and carton-labeling which includes production and expiry dates.
Qualizy works on Food Safety & Compliance
Consumers usually avoid restaurants with low food safety scores. This is why following the safety regulations is integral to food businesses. But manually maintaining paperwork and records is cumbersome and time-consuming. However, these records play an important role in fetching a high safety score. Hence, startups are developing food safety applications that store all records and optimize tasks related to food safety regulations.
Swiss startup Qualizy develops a food safety application that helps butcheries, food retailers, restaurants, bars, cafes, and other food outlets adhere to hygiene standards and food security guidelines. The application tracks food allergens and expiry dates with QR codes and provides notifications to the retailers regarding impending expiry. This enables them to separate those items from the lot and sell them as soon as possible. Moreover, wireless sensors monitor the temperatures of the freezers and send alerts in case of any discrepancy. This not only improves food grading efficiency but also reduces food waste.
Discover more FoodTech Startups
Food startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on food inspection, quality management, as well as waste reduction. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the food industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more food technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free FoodTech Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
