A Start-up Co-founded by Graduates from School of Biological Sciences was Funded by Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) to Provide Testing Services for Food Products

This start-up business has been awarded HK$200,000 by Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU) 2022-2023 exercise under the Innovation and Technology Commission.

Food production went through a long and complex manufacturing supply chain that could span continents and involve third-party vendors at each step of the way, giving rise to food fraud. The issue drained a huge amount of money from the food industry by substituting high-quality food with cheaper alternatives, often from unknown, unsecured sources. Making matters worse, substitutions are often undetectable in final products. 

In view of this, PhD graduates Dr Colin Chung-Lim LUK(on the left) and Dr Inga Elizabeth CONTI-JERPE from School of Biological Sciences, co-founded a start-up business ‘isoFoodtrace’ to provide testing services for food products by using stable isotope technology, which helps detect food fraud and ensure food safety.

In collaboration with the Stable Isotope Laboratory at School of Biological Sciences, its scientific testing service can trace food products’ origin and farming/rearing method (grass-fed, wild-caught, free-ranged or organic) with half the cost of existing services and require only a small amount (1 gram) of sample for each test. 

This start-up business has been awarded HK$200,000 by Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU) 2022-2023 exercise under the Innovation and Technology Commission.