Sludge Watch ==> Toxin Alert - packaging that detects pathogens

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Great idea.
Lets use it to package Milorganite!

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Great idea awaits big customer
22.jan.07
National Post
Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco
When Toronto-based Toxin Alert Inc. was founded in 1999 to develop and 
commercialize a diagnostic system for food packaging to detect pathogens, 
such as E-coli, salmonella and just about any microorganism, William 
Bodenhamer had the confidence of an entrepreneur who knows he's on to a sure 
thing.
Mr. Bodenhamer, president, chief executive and founder of the company, was 
quoted as saying, "Food safety is an issue whose time has come."
The story says that Toxin Alert had patented a technology that prints a 
diagnostic tool on plastic food wrap. This printed tool alerts the consumer 
by changing colour when the food becomes contaminated. The benefits to 
consumers, retailers and the food industry are substantial, from an added 
level of safety that can identify E coli- contaminated food before it is 
even removed from the package, to extended shelf life for products whose 
best-before- date often expires before the food does, to potentially 
eliminating the need for massive recalls because the specific contaminated 
food packages could be easily identified.
With an estimated 500 billion square feet of plastic food wrap used every 
year in the United States alone, the market potential is enormous. It didn't 
take long for Toxin Alert's technology to create a buzz in the scientific 
community and receive international recognition. By December, 1999, the 
company had raised $4.5-million through an initial public offering. Working 
with researchers at the University of Guelph and the University of Southern 
Mississippi, the company developed ways to mass produce its product and make 
it easily printable using generic commercial printers on standard plastic 
food wrapping.
The interest in the food industry just didn't materialize into a signed 
deal. The idea is revolutionary in an industry that Mr. Boedenhamer says is 
quite conservative. "I can understand their hesitation," he says.
The company continued pursuing approval from the Canadian Food Inspection 
Agency, which it received in January, 2006, and from the U.S. Food and Drug 
Administration, which it expects to receive soon.
It also began to look for partners outside the food industry.
"There are so many possible applications," Mr. Bodenhamer says. The U.S. 
Department of Defense agreed, seeing the obvious applications for homeland 
security, including fighting bioterrorism. In 2004, it entered into a 
research agreement with Toxin Alert to collaborate in the development and 
manufacture of the technology. Then in 2005, Toxin Alert added a U.S. patent 
to its growing number of patents to incorporate its technology into 
manufactured items such as gloves, hats, facemasks and aprons.
Last fall, the University of Southern Mississippi received a US$1-million 
award from the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to 
begin commercialization of Toxin Alert's system. Meanwhile, the company 
entered into an exclusive licence agreement with Swedish-based Dianova 
Sverige AB, a supplier of display trays for the food retailing industry in 
Scandinavia.
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