South Korean startup lasers in on food safety

(In a demonstration, tap water is injected with E. coli bacteria and fed into The Wave Inspection Sensor system. (Photo by Elaine Ramirez))

South Korean startup lasers in on food safety

By ELAINE RAMIREZ, NIKEI ASIAN REVIEW, OCT. 19, 2017

The Wave Talk claims to offer quicker, cheaper bacteria detection

SEOUL -- South Korean startup The Wave Talk says it can improve food safety by commercializing a sensor system that can be used on production lines to detect and remove contaminated liquids.

Food poisoning is potentially fatal, especially for infants and young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with chronic illnesses or weakened immune systems. It kills about 3,000 people a year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a U.S. health protection agency. Food recalls cost the U.S. up to $93.2 billion a year, according to a 2015 study at Ohio State University.

Testing for microorganisms is expensive, complicated and time-consuming. But The Wave Talk has developed a method that takes seconds to complete, does not require specialist staff, and can be installed on food, cosmetics or pharmaceutical production lines.

"Besides food safety, TWT's technology could be implemented in the smart home industry, as the system to monitor contamination can be made in small sizes. Also, it could be implemented in the health care industry to check contamination in medical devices," said Woo Deog-hyun, manager of the intelligence business division of Nongshim Engineering, a unit of Nongshim, a South Korean food and beverage conglomerate.

Nongshim, which is considering joint projects and sales development with the startup, plans to install the technology at one of its bottled water factories by the end of the year. TWT said it has also signed initial deals with several other large South Korean companies in the pharmaceutical, bottled water, beer, beverage and humidifier industries, including Lotte, CJ CheilJedang, LG Electronics and SK Hynix.

"Scientifically and objectively quantifying bacterial contamination has always been the number one problem that needs to be solved in the food industry," Woo said. "Nongshim Engineering has very high hopes that [the TWT technology] will bring about significant changes in food safety," he added. "The fact that it is so easy to implement in the industrial field is one of the very attractive features."

Founded by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, The Wave Talk has raised $2 million from domestic investors, including Naver, an internet services provider, Estechpharma, a pharmaceutical company, and Bluepoint Partners, an advanced technology venture capital firm. The company has also received some government funding.

Its product, dubbed The Wave Inspection Sensor, uses a technology called time reversal signal processing to shoot a laser beam through a liquid and measure the angle of its reflection. If the light reflects along the same pathway, the substance is pure. But if bacteria are present, they will interfere with the light, which will return at a different angle. For now, only homogeneous liquids -- those with a uniform structure -- can be tested. Fruit particles in juice, for example, would interfere with the laser beam.

Cutting costs

While TWT said the technology will not replace the need for laboratory scientists, it said it will help to reduce machinery, labor and food recall costs. Kim Young-dug, chief executive, said the technology is more affordable than other systems because the sensors can be installed directly onto production lines, avoiding the need for samples to be taken to laboratories.

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