An Aberdeen tech firm which uses AI to detect allergens in ingredients destined for food vendors including restaurants and supermarkets has achieved a prized industry certification standard.
LiberEat, which works to protect consumers from potentially harmful ingredients including nuts, has become a certified B Corporation for its approach to food safety.
The company, which was founded in 2016, works with high-profile restaurant chains, caterers, supermarkets, and food producers and manufacturers, to detect errors in allergen or ingredient information before they reach the consumer.
Barry Leaper, founder and CEO of the company, said: “With food safety under the spotlight more than ever, companies must go beyond compliance to actively protect consumers. At LiberEat, we’ve always championed this mission and now, our commitment has been recognised with B Corp Certification.
“For us, being a B Corporation holds a huge amount of weight and is far more than a marketing badge; it is validation of our dedication to making the food industry safer, smarter and more accountable, and will continue to guide our decision-making as we enter our next stage of business growth.”
The certification was awarded as scientists announced a significant breakthrough yesterday, which could see a new treatment for peanut allergy sufferers. Research showed that by gradually introducing 21 severely allergic adults to peanut products and peanuts in increasing amounts, they eventually build up tolerance.
LiberEat has a list of customers including pizza chain Papa Johns. Its AI and machine learning technology can find errors in client data that have been manually missed during the food production process, preventing them from getting to outlets and, ultimately, consumers. Specifically, the firm has detected 3,600 errors in the past eighteen months.
The company has previously received backing and support from Innovate UK and Scottish Enterprise. They also were Scottish EDGE winners and named a Tech Nation Rising Star.
“For consumers, and especially those with food allergies and intolerances, the data on something like a restaurant menu, website, app, food label or food order is the only information they can rely on, so it absolutely has to be accurate,” said Leaper.
He. added: “You’d hope this was the case given growing pressure on the food industry to strengthen safety standards and reduce risks, however LiberEat’s technology has detected thousands of errors over the last year-and-a-half.”
B Corporation is a third-party standard requiring companies to meet social sustainability and environmental performance standards, meet accountability standards, and be transparent to the public according to the score they receive on the assessment. It is run by B Lab is a non-profit organisation founded in 2006 in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.
