Spectacular Labs Joins Forces with Canadian Centre for Meat Innovation & Technology to Improve Food Safety Testing

RICHMOND, Calif. — Spectacular Labs Inc., a company specializing in next-generation foodborne pathogen testing, announced a collaboration with the Centre for Meat Innovation & Technology (CMIT) to improve foodborne pathogen testing.

As part of the early access agreement, meat and poultry producers across Canada will be able to use the Spectacular OneTouch platform to validate assay performance and demonstrate its intuitive workflow in meat and poultry applications, said Spectacular Labs. The Spectacular platform was designed for rapid, on-site testing to help prevent potential outbreaks, alleviate critical supply chain bottlenecks and shorten food production timelines.

As the meat and poultry processing industry across Canada advances at a rapid rate, CMIT was established by Meat and Poultry Ontario to help processors collaborate, find and adopt new technologies and to make it easier for their employees to learn and advance their skills. CMIT will deploy the Spectacular OneTouch platform in the University of Guelph’s federally licensed processing facility. Meat processors will be able to access the platform to accelerate turnaround times, self-serve third-party certification of analysis and reduce overall testing costs, said Spectacular Labs.

“CMIT is dedicated to advancing the world’s leading meat processing technologies and offering them to our network of meat producers across Canada,” said Luis Garcia, director of CMIT. “Spectacular’s OneTouch platform has the potential to transform traditional food safety testing through the ability to detect harmful pathogens in their own facilities — faster and more easily than ever before.”

Spectacular Labs was founded by scientists out of the University of California, Berkeley, to reduce food safety testing inefficiencies and modernize current workflows. It was the first company to fully automate the foodborne pathogen testing workflow from enrichment to reporting. The new OneTouch benchtop platform requires one minute of operator hands-on time. It is now being used by a growing number of early access collaborators to detect pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria, Escherichia coli, and Campylobacter.

“This early access collaboration with CMIT underscores our ongoing commitment to improving the accuracy, speed and affordability of foodborne pathogen detection,” said Arthur Montazeri, Ph.D., founder and president of Spectacular Labs. “CMIT is a renowned entity that stands at the forefront of meat processing innovation and product quality. We look forward to working with the team to showcase the full utility of our innovative platform that empowers food producers to deliver high-quality meat to consumers as quickly as possible.” 

In the future, the two organizations plan to expand the engagement to further advance pathogen testing technologies and enhance food safety protocols across the industry in order to minimize waste, secure supply chains, fortify traceability and reduce cost of food for consumers.