Advanced sous-vide aseptic packaging

Meat is packed with energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals that are needed for growth and development. It has been an important part of the human diet for over 1.5 million years. However, meat is a perishable, and the distribution of fresh meat in countries with poor cold-chain infrastructure poses major challenges.

We have developed a revolutionary technology called advanced sous-vide aseptic packaging (ASAP) that enables the sterilization of food at 60-80 degrees Celsius. Using our technology, fresh meat, fish and seafood can be stored at room temperature for up to two years. Food can distributed around the world easily, efficiently and without requiring refrigeration. Imagine the amount of food, energy and carbon emissions we are going to save if our solution is scaled globally!

Currently, about 30% of all fresh meat we produce on Earth is wasted before reaching consumer hands. Refrigeration extends the shelf life of fresh food from days to months, but requires much energy and contributes to carbon emission. Canning extends the shelf life of meat from days to years, but fresh taste is destroyed because of the high temperature needed for sterilization. What if there was a technology that can extend the shelf life of meat like canning, but is able to retain fresh taste without requiring much energy unlike refrigeration? Would this not be the best of all worlds? 

Our ASAP technology enables the sterilization of food between 60 to 80 degrees Celsius. Because of the low temperature used, meat retains their juiciness, softness and pink medium-rare color. By scaling our technology globally, we can:

1) greatly reduce the energy used and emission generated from the transportation and storage of meat.

2) prevent spoilage, reduce wastage, and eliminate the worries of expiry date, food safety and freezer burns.

3) meals of five-star restaurant quality can be prepared by amateurs in minutes if not seconds.

4) solve 10 out of 17 sustainable development goals set out by the United Nations.

If you look at traditional retort sterilization, the way we ensure that all bacteria are killed is to heat the food at 121 degrees Celsius for 15 to 40 minutes. The high temperature is what makes canned food dry, tough and mushy.

In ASAP, we separate the food into different components on which we apply different sterilization techniques: for the food packaging, we use vaporized hydrogen peroxide; for the olive oil, we use retort sterilization; and for the meat, we heat the surface at 160 degrees Celsius for 30 seconds. Because bacteria only exist on the outside of the meat, they will be zapped quickly by the instant high heat. Finally, we combine everything together under an aseptic environment and perform sous vide to cook through the meat. Since everything is sterile, the meat will remain shelf stable for two years.

Our technology is going to come in handy as urbanization, chronic diseases and viral outbreaks threaten human civilization. People living in cities will benefit most from our technology. High-quality, nutritious, wholesome food can be prepared at home with small space, small kitchen and few utensils. Selling fresh meat online, via unmanned supermarket or drone delivery is now possible thanks to the discovery of our solution. Cancer and immunodeficient patients can be sure that the meat they are eating are free from bacteria.

Our technology is going to provide children, especially those in developing countries, with access to high-quality, nutritional and tasty proteins. Its impacts will be similar to those of milk when liquid aseptic packaging was discovered.By enriching children’s diet with meat, they will gain not only a better head start but also a greater resilience later in life.

Our technology is also going to help farmers move from subsistence farming to profitable meat production. This is achieved by providing farmers with a central meat processing agent that can help them process the meat and accelerate the farm to fork process. Because of this, our technology is set to close the nutrition and economic gaps between developing and developed countries.

Our technology is going to help the food industry reduce cost, save energy, and improve production efficiency. Those 30% meat we would have wasted can now be used to feed more people. With our technology, you can have perfectly cooked dishes at home or in a restaurant within the snap of a finger. Freezer burns, defrosting and bad cooking will become a thing of the past. And by locking in the freshness of meat at its source and extending the shelf life from days to years, there will be more food available for everyone. 

ASAP is the first aseptic packaging technology designed for solid foods. We can use ASAP to make 100% bacteria-free, wholesome fresh meat, which would also be a world's first. In fact, we believe ASAP is the biggest thing to come since the discovery of liquid aseptic packaging in 1942. It is a once-in-a-century technology.

ASAP food has the best of all worlds. It has the taste and nutrition of fresh meat, shelf life and convenience of canned meat, and does not require refrigeration unlike that of frozen meat.

Given its convenience, environmental sustainability and other benefits, ASAP is set to replace most of the products you see in the fresh meat or frozen meals section. Therefore, our competitors would be traditional fresh meat and frozen meal products.

ASAP works by combining several state-of-the-art technologies: high-heat surface sterilization, sous-vide technology, aseptic packaging and automation. To reach commercial reliability and repeatability, ASAP also relies heavily on our expertise in product development, as well as hygiene management.

We have served ASAP food at Sweden Foodtech Big Meet (https://sweden-foodtech-the-bi...), Future Foodtech London (https://www.packaginginsights....), Food Matters Live London (https://www.foodmatterslive.co...) and Hong Kong Food's Future Summit (https://www.foods-future.com/s...).

Our company has been named Top 10 startups by MATCH-ER (https://www.match-er.com/start...), an international open innovation program based in Emilia-Romagna; Top 10 startups by Foodtech Accelerator, a Milan-based food accelerator run by Deloitte (https://www.foodtechaccelerato...); Foodtech 500 companies, the definitive list of most inspirational movers and shakers in AgriFoodTech powered by Forward Fooding (https://forwardfooding.com/foo...).

Our technology has been shortlisted for 2019 Food Matters Live Awards in the Best Food Tech Innovation of the Year category; Top 10 Food Processing and Packaging Tech Solution Providers in APAC 2020 by Food and Beverage Technology Review; and Top 5 Finalists in Global Maker Challenge sponsored by Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity.

Our world is faced with a host of grand problems ranging from food insecurity and malnutrition, to climate change and urbanization. To solve grand problems, you need not technologies that scratch only the surface of problems but a grand technology that can do it all.

Our patent-pending ASAP technology can solve 10 out of 17 sustainable development goals set out by the United Nations. It is going to change the way humans cook, eat and live. It is going to expedite the way we process food, thus freeing us from stress and bad food that would otherwise hinder us from enjoying the good things in life. One day we humans are going to migrate to extraterrestrial planets such as Mars, and we think that the only way we can do this comfortably and enjoyably would be to have ASAP food in our spaceships.

Current: 10,000.

One year: 100,000

Five years: 1 billion

At the moment, all our products are made manually in our pilot factory. The process is far from efficient. Our first goal within the next year is to build a production line for making ASAP food autonomously. Also to demonstrate the market potential of our products, our second goal is to run a successful kickstarter campaign to start selling ASAP meat products. To do this, we are partnering with some of the world's largest meat processors, such as Cargill and Amadori, the US-based accelerator program Techstars, as well as the fresh meat packaging solution supplier Sealed Air. The expected throughput is 4 tonnes of meat per day.

To scale quickly and efficiently, our company is going to adopt an "asset-light" approach in the first five years and contracts OEM suppliers to help us make the components needed to assemble the production line. We are also going to strengthen our IP portfolio by investing heavily in our R&D, particularly in the area of food formulation and machine engineering.

With the economic downturn, companies are less willing to invest in innovations especially those requiring high capital investments. However, it is innovation that is going to help save them through this economic crisis. With the support of investors, technical solution providers and programs such as MIT Solve, we hope to break down most of these barriers.

Also, consumers may need some time to understand how our products are better and safer than current products in the market. This would require education, possibly through academic publications, news reports and social media, which is going to take time and strategic marketing.

FDA approval is one of the most common worries of our corporate customers. The great thing about our sterilization technology is that it is 100% a physical process. We don't add additives or chemicals to achieve the long shelf life. Therefore, we don't need FDA approval to start selling our products. However, we would need to take a greater responsibility as a technological solution provider to ensure the sterilility and reliability of our products. 

We have addressed this in the above.

Six full time workers, two part-time staff and some contracters. We have an advisory board comprising scientists, engineers, aseptic packaging experts and business strategists.

I am a scientist with a master’s degree in food analysis and food safety management, and a doctoral degree in plasma physics. I have previously worked as an Editor at Nature magazine for seven years. I believe that if it wasn’t for my interdisciplinary background and unusual career path, I would not have come up with such an innovative invention.

I am lucky to have met Elton Ho, the co-founder of IXON, when I was studying my master's degree. We have complimentary skills to help each other. Also, I am lucky to have a very supportive private investor who also serves as a business coach.

Cargill, Amadori, Sealed Air, Ecolab, Techstars, Deloitte.

IXON has three roles. In the first stage, we play the role of food scientist, helping food manufacturers conduct product development. We use our pilot factory in Hong Kong to make product prototype and conduct shelf life testing. We will charge a fixed cost based on the product being developed.

In the second stage, we play the role of a production plant engineer. We help the food manufacturer design and install all the components that are needed to make the automated production line. Here, we will charge 10-15% of the total project cost as part of our design fee.

In the third stage, we play the role of a customer support. We help the food manufacturer conduct personnel training and quality assurance to ensure the smooth running of the production machine. We will also help with legal litigations in case their competitors try to use the ASAP technology. Here, we will charge them a % royalty from their retail product, which wil be used to support the running of the customer support.

Given the technicality of our innovative solution, we must strategically partner with various companies, including meat processors, food processing machine suppliers, food packaging suppliers, food hygiene solution providers and e-commerce companies, to achieve success in commercialization. We also will need the support of governments, authorities, academics and philanthropies to take this technology off the ground. For networking and public education purposes, we are applying for the MIT Solve program.