Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIOsens (BIOsens – cutting-edge portable device for precise and rapid analysis of crops)

Teaser

Mycotoxins are invisible hazard compounds which naturally occur in food and are dangerous for human and animal health upon ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact. They can originate directly on the field, during storage, transportation or packaging and are hardly eliminated...

Summary

Mycotoxins are invisible hazard compounds which naturally occur in food and are dangerous for human and animal health upon ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact. They can originate directly on the field, during storage, transportation or packaging and are hardly eliminated because of their stability against heat, physical, and chemical treatments. Mycotoxins are causing a great challenge to food industry, contaminating 25% of the global food supply and as a result leading to annual losses of around 1 billion tons of food products.
Nowadays many agriculture value chain participants do not have an ability to check mycotoxins containment rapidly onsite and receive highly accurate quantitative results. Current way of mycotoxins testing can be divided into two main ways with their advantages and drawbacks. The first one is laboratory testing. Such testing is characterized with the highest accuracy, but at the same time it is impossible to perform testing onsite and quickly. Consequently, farmers, traders, feed producers and other market players need to spend time and money to send samples to laboratory and then wait long hours to get mycotoxin testing results. Time is crucial in mycotoxins detection, because toxins can easily spread throughout foods and feed and contaminate the rest of production. Another method of testing mycotoxin contamination is strip tests, which enable market players to perform test onsite and get results in few minutes. However, the accuracy of such tests is very low, and results are often visual, which is not acceptable at the borders or by food safety controls, where it is crucial to know the exact number of mycotoxins per unit of weight.

BIOsens creates unique value by making mycotoxins testing process accurate, rapid and easy to perform at the same time. BIOsens device provides customers with ability to get quantitative results onsite with the same accuracy as laboratory solutions within 25 minutes. Therefore, clients save money avoiding mycotoxins contamination in crops, protect the animals’ health from mycotoxicosis, improve the process of decision-making by proceeding the operations faster and ensuring the quality of supplies.

The objective of the SME Instrument Phase 1 project was to conduct a feasibility study for BIOsens commercialization that includes in-depth analysis of target markets and validation of the market entry strategy, unique value proposition validation, development of IPR protection strategy and elaboration of the business plan. The SME Instrument Phase 1 project allowed BIOsens to prepare for rapid global commercialization of the innovative solution and fulfill its mission rooted in the fundamental human need for safe, abundant food.

Work performed

During the SME instrument Phase 1 implementation project BIOsens conducted in-depth analysis of target markets and validated its market entry strategy and unique value proposition, developed IPR protection strategy and elaborated the business plan.
Global mycotoxin testing market reached USD 858 mn in 2018 and is expected to grow at 6% p. a. during 2018-2023. Detailed analysis of the most attractive markets revealed that priority markets for BIOsens are France, Germany, the UK and the US.
Based on numerous interviews with market players BIOsens selected target customers for the solution – farmers (crop farming and animals breeding), traders, and feed producing companies – 3 major parties who are affected the most by mycotoxins contamination. In-depth analysis of target clients’ pain points and existing alternative solutions allowed to define BIOsens unique value proposition: get extremely accurate quantitative results of mycotoxin containment in foods and feeds onsite in less than 5 minutes with minimum human efforts required for testing.
During the IPR strategy development BIOsens team created a plan for acquiring trademarks and patents in addition to existing patent application in Ukraine and initiated PCT search. Regulatory requirements analysis showed that BIOsens needs to get CE and FCC certification for the device.
Finally, BIOsens elaborated its business plan for rapid global commercialization. BIOsens will focus on the assembly of the final product, R&D, software development, marketing activities, and partnership network development, whereas manufacturing of the devices and cartridges parts will be outsourced. BIOsens revenue streams will include devices, cartridges and software sales. BIOsens will start market entry in the end of 2020 from piloting sales of the solution testing 3 mycotoxins in France and then gradually expend into Germany, the UK and the US, while upgrading the product for testing 7 mycotoxins simultaneously.

Final results

During the SME Instrument Phase 1 implementation project BIOsens conducted numerous interviews with potential clients, users, partners and industry experts to identify their needs and understand common business practices. By collecting the feedback from customers (farmers, traders, silos and food processing companies) about BIOsens solution, the team was able to tailor it better to the needs and preferences of potential customers.
Moreover, BIOsens conducted pilot testing of the device with the potential clients in Ukraine and Poland. This helped BIOsens to validate existing BIOsens technology, optimize current prototype and update the plans for further product development.

Website & more info

More info: https://sens.bio/.