ImpactVision: Improving Our Global Food System With Hyperspectral Imaging
Mission: To build a more transparent and effective global food system using hyperspectral technology.
Product: Software platform using predictive learning and image recognition to provide users information on food quality.
The Problem
Thirty to fifty percent of food produced globally is currently being wasted each year.
This translates to a huge amount of wasted resources within food supply chains, not to mention resources like water and gas that we really cannot be so careless with.
All of this food waste totals about 1.3 billion tonnes per year.
For comparison, an Olympic sized swimming pool holds about 2,500 tonnes of water. It would take about 520,000 Olympic sized swimming pools to hold all of this food waste. Every. Single. Year.
Put another way, try to visualize a vast array of over 1,400 swimming pools being filled with food waste every day.
But the future needn’t look bleak. If we found a way to reduce food waste to about 25% of what we waste now, there would be enough food to feed the world.
The Solution
ImpactVision is building their first product to leverage hyperspectral imaging cameras to provide critical data on food quality (like pH levels in beef), which act as key indicators of food freshness.
“What we are doing is providing rapid and non-invasive mechanism to assess food quality during the production process, and in real time.”
— Abi Ramanan, CEO
The company is also building unique software that filters this data and sends back important information that would prevent food waste from happening.
Think about the technology applied like this:
An avocado distributor is preparing shipments to stores across the US. Using data from hyperspectral images, the distributor can see avocado sugar levels across their stock (a determinant of ripeness), and use this data to determine which avocados should be shipped across the country and which are too ripe to make the trip, thereby being distributed to local markets instead.
Watch CEO Abi Ramanan’s recent TEDx talk on the unseen power of hyperspectral imaging to learn more about the huge potential of this technology.
We’re accepting applications for our next class!
ImpactVision is a startup that just graduated from SU’s Startup Accelerator.
So if you’re working on something BIG in life sciences, neurobiology, nanotech, medical devices or other areas that could improve the health and wellness of millions of people, the SU Labs Startup Accelerator may be right for you.
Our third cohort is accepting applications for Healthcare and Biotech startups now and the cohort kicks off February 2017.
