FoodDocs raises US$2.4M to slash food safety compliance time using AI

15 Feb 2022 --- AI-powered FoodDocs has raised £1.8 million (US$2.4 million) to solve food safety compliance issues in a fraction of the time. The technology is poised to help food businesses become compliant 500 times faster than traditional methods.

“Food businesses need to meet lots of complex food safety rules to ensure that food is always safe for everyone,” Katrin Liivat, CEO and founder of FoodDocs tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“AI has continuously shown its potential in helping food business owners to address time-consuming problems.” 

FoodDocs is able to create a (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) HACCP plan in less than one hour when compared with manual scrolling through various instructions and legislation which typically takes at least three to four weeks, according to the company. 

The new capital will be used to reach more customers in both the US and UK, and to further develop core AI solutions such as its automatic HACCP plan builder, digital FSMS and auto-fill systems. 

Supply chain pressures sharpen focus
Taste and nutrition specialist Kerry, which also leverages AI in food safety, underscores the technology’s potential to help bolster future resilient, sustainable and consumer-friendly food systems. 

AI has a key role in predicting the performance of antimicrobials, from peptides to organic acids and botanical extracts.The company currently uses AI to reduce tedious tasks, predict food safety and reduce the scope of human error in its processes. 

“COVID-19 has put every gap in the supply chain under pressure, with increased consumer concern about food safety as well as consumer awareness of food waste,” Vivien Sheehan, global vice president RD&A for applied health and nutrition at Kerry, tells FoodIngredientsFirst. 

“The number and complexity of the food safety challenges have increased multi-folds. With limited available resources, future successful solutions will require us to utilize AI-powered tools and models.” 

Accelerating food safety
The time-saving technology has been especially instrumental in working with emerging products in the plant protein space where legislation is not as defined as it is for meat, says Kerry's Sheehan.

“Not all companies have in-house microbiology capabilities and the same experience to understand complex areas of potential microbial risk.” 

She notes that the sources of pathogenic risk in plant-based meat are equal to those in processed meat, and the sources of spoilage microorganisms in plant-based meat are actually higher than in processed meat.

AI also has the potential to enhance areas such as microbial modeling. 

“This builds the relationship between food safety challenge study data that has been completed and helps to predict efficacy with different parameters, such as pH, water activity and fat content,” she continues.

FoodDocs’ was established by food safety experts Katrin Liivat and Karin Repp.Reducing repetition 
Modeling and prediction can help reduce trial and error. For example, Sheehan says that “AI has a key role in predicting the performance of antimicrobials, from peptides to organic acids and botanical extracts.” 

“Delivering efficacious solutions with credible data providing confidence of success are key to shortening the product development cycle and are drivers in ongoing investment in AI technologies,” she adds. 

Meanwhile at FoodDocs, the company’s auto-fill solution reduces the labor involved in filling in daily food safety monitoring forms – one of the most tedious and repetitive jobs for a food business team.

“Our digital Food Safety Management System (FSMS) solution fills in monitoring sheets automatically according to previously inserted data. With this function, employees only need to verify the information in the sheets.”

Transitioning to digital  
Making the transition from paper to digital is also poised to be a critical step in streamlining a company's daily operations. 

“Switching from a paper to a digital system is one of the biggest fears and issues for food business owners. There are normally lots of monitoring sheets found in food businesses, and digitizing them all usually takes at least a month or even longer for some,” explains Liivat. 

“Our AI can implement the whole system in 15 minutes,” she adds. This is accomplished through machine learning technology that understands how some food businesses’ operations are unique to them. 

FoodDocs also creates a digital FSMS that is tailored to the customer’s operations and most commonly used food safety activities in their location, Liivat adds. 

FoodDocs’ latest funding was led by Bonnier Ventures with Forward Venture Capital, and Spring Capital also joined the round with existing investor United Angels VC. 

By Missy Green