Investment will help improve food safety and bring Electronic Food Pasteurization Technology innovation to Texas
Texas Gov. Rick Perry and CEO of ScanTech Sciences Dolan Falconer
Houston – January 5, 2010 – The Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) has awarded $2 million to ScanTech Sciences Inc., a developer of “cold” electronic pasteurization technologies designed to improve food safety.
As a result of the TETF investment, ScanTech Sciences is moving its headquarters from Atlanta to Houston. ScanTech Sciences has been working withTexas A&M University on advanced cold-pasteurization food-treatment research.
“The TETF is a unique and powerful tool that helps Texas companies in all sectors and stages of development realize the goal of commercializing innovative technologies,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “ScanTech’s technology will help improve food safety while creating jobs and growing the economy in the Rio GrandeValley.”
In addition to now being headquartered in Texas, ScanTech Sciences is exploring locations for an engineering facility in the Rio Grande Valley region, which accounts for a large percentage of Mexico’s harvested exports into the United States.
“ScanTech Sciences’ move to Texas is important because the company would be the first TETF recipient in our region,” said Fernando González, executive director of the Rio Grande Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization. “The agricultural sector and import-export functions in the Rio Grande Valley make this the perfect place for ScanTech.”
ScanTech Sciences will ‘Revolutionize the Importing of Produce’
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as much as 25 percent of the world’s food supply is lost annually to pests and bacteria. In addition, food-borne ailments strike 76 million people annually and cost the U.S. economy more than $33 billion each year, the CDC says.
ScanTech Sciences has developed a custom line of food treatment systems using Electron Beam (E-Beam) and X-Ray technologies that provide a cost-effective and ‘Green’ solution to these problems. The company’s cold electronic pasteurization process involves shooting electricity through fruits, vegetables, meats and other food products instead of using harsh heat, nuclear materials, or chemicals — resulting in:
· Fewer insects, harmful bacteria and toxins
· No chemical absorption or residue
· Better-tasting produce, as crops can be harvested nearer their peak ripeness.
ScanTech Sciences’ technologies are proven to increase shelf life. Blueberries that undergo a cold-pasteurization treatment, for example, can last up to 40 days longer. Tomatoes, meanwhile, can last up to 14 days longer.
Traditional chemical treatments such as Methyl Bromide are increasingly becoming unacceptable and being phased out worldwide. Environmental concerns, health risks and increased costs associated with these harmful fumigants have forced the agriculture industry to search for other solutions in order to continue importing and exporting food products.
“The deployment of ScanTech Science’s new food treatment system will revolutionize the importing of produce into the United States,” González said.
Chip Starns, Vice President of Operations for ScanTech Sciences, says Texas’ location, as well as its financial and academic support, was instrumental in the company’s decision to move to the state.
“The state of Texas deserves major credit for its Emerging Technology Fund and its aggressive recruiting of technology startups,” Starns said. “Not only will we be strategically located, but we’ll also get to conduct research with some of the top-minds in the agriculture business in our bid to make the food we all eat safer and last longer.”
