Inline real-time 4.0 quality monitoring in food production
The food industry is in need of solutions to enhance food safety and food security across the supply chain, so as to reduce the amount of food discarded as waste and prevent the creation of toxic substances during processing: today, about 1.3 billion tonnes of food get lost or wasted! At Insort GmbH we aim to address this need with the FoodMonitor: a monitoring system which combines the latest technologies in (I) hyperspectral imaging and sensing in food production and (II) machine learning algorithms and Internet of the Things. The FoodMonitor analyses the chemical composition of the material to be processed at all critical stages of the production line, providing the operator with a complete, real-time picture to adjust the different production steps according to the real characteristics and quality of the food products, i.e.  optimizing production at product-level according to efficiency, health and sustainability aspects. In this way, we contribute to reducing food loss and waste pre-consumption as well as health damages post-consumption of industrial processed food. At Insort GmbH we count with a highly ambitious and very experienced team in technical, commercial and financial tasks for the project execution. Our company has been very successful since its foundation in 2011: we are now 30 employees, generating an annual turnover of €5 million (with ascending trend), having won 7 national and international prices on best practices and disruptive technologies.  In addition to our social, economic and ecological aims in reducing food wastage and enhancing food safety, through this project we aim to boost the competitiveness of our company, reaching overall revenues of about €14 million in the third year of commercialization, and increasing our personnel in about 12 people. With a Phase 2 investment of €1.5 million, this would imply a Return of Investment of 3.3