Midwesterners are no strangers to food-related illness—and we’re not just talking about the kind that results from too much fried stuff on-a-stick. A recent cyclospora outbreak sickened more than 550 people, with over 200 cases in Iowa and Nebraska.
It’s fitting then that a team of University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers and a local software company are working together to improve the way companies manage food safety.
Harshavardhan Thippareddi and Jeyamkondan Subbiah—professors of food science and technology at UNL—had identified weaknesses in food safety programs. While food companies collect data about food’s microbial contaminants on a daily basis, there was no way for them to track and analyze that data over time. So the professors developed a prototype software solution to help businesses and regulators more effectively manage food-related contamination.
After connecting with ISoft—a local production management software company founded in 2011—Presage Analytics was born.
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“The software provides the food industry a means to connect the dots in case of a food safety issue through trend analysis to manage and prevent future food safety issues such as recalls and food-borne illness outbreaks, which can be devastating for the industry,” said Subbiah (right) in a press release.
The product combines ISoft’s inventory management platform with Thippareddi and Subbiah’s prototype, allowing regulators to view a swath of analytical data, including contaminant types, volumes and locations. Presage’s creators hope their product will help food safety specialists use data to examine the causes of an outbreak as well as predict, prevent or contain future outbreaks.
“We see huge potential to get this product into the market quickly and to truly improve food safety internationally,” ISoft president and CEO Matthew Wegener (left) said on NUtech’s website. “By using the software framework already developed by ISoft and using Thippareddi and Subbiah’s expertise, we have the best of both worlds.”
The team was brought together through NUtech Ventures—an organization associated with UNL that helps students, professors and researchers move projects forward. NUtech allows inventors and creators to hone their ideas and connects them with the right people to help the project succeed.
A local poultry processor is in the process of beta testing Presage’s software. The company is currently housed in the Turbine Flats coworking space.
Credits: Jeyamkondan Subbiah photo from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Matthew Wegener photo by Kate Ellingson.