Invisible Sentinel is venturing into the juice business.
The fast-growing University City Science Center-based company has been making a name for itself by testing the likes of Victory beer and Jackson Family wines for various kinds of spoilage. (It also tests food for pathogens.)
Now the company has signed a deal with Refresco Gerber, an international bottler of juice, to use the testing technology in Refresco's quality processes for rapid detection of spoilage organisms commonly found in fruit juice and concentrates.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed and its unclear which juice brands the company will be testing.
What is clear is that the company’s Veriflow test is fast. In fact, the company claims the industry standard in testing for alicyclobacillus (a bacteria) takes seven days — but Invisible Sentinel can do it in about three hours. Quicker testing likely means fresher juice on the shelves.
“We drink juices from all over the world, particularly in wintertime,” said Benjamin Pascal, chief business officer. “This organism puts funky taste in juice, but we can weed that out with our game-changing test.”
Invisible Sentinel CEO Nicholas Siciliano called it a “major endorsement” of his company’s technology. “Not only do we have a partner with an exceptional track record in the marketplace, but this collaboration provides us with a strategic foothold in fruit juice quality testing where there is a true need for our paradigm-shifting technology.”
