A staggering 23 million people contract food-related illnesses each year in Europe alone. Of that number, about 5,000 die. Temperature control is crucial in preventing the growth of food pathogens but fluctuations can occur while the food is transiting through the cold chain. Galway-based start-up Hemdahl Data Analytics, has developed an SaaS (software as a solution) response to prevent this from happening.
"Temperature excursions [when the temperature of cargo goes above or below recommended settings] happen regularly and there is no way of knowing what effect this has had on perishable foods," says Karl Lusted, who formed Hemdahl with Gareth Roddy in 2015. "Hemdahl provides systematic analysis of temperature data and answers key questions such as whether the food is safe to eat; how much shelf life remains for a product; and whether the product was subjected to potential damage such as freezing injury. Our system improves both product safety and operational practices by highlighting problems such as incorrect set points and poor loading practices."
Lusted says Hemdahl currently has the marketplace to itself as there is no other system available that can automatically analyse the temperatures of perishable foods in the cold chain and produce the detailed analysis that it can. “There is plenty of research on post-harvest pathologies of perishable foods but no commercial solution that uses the actual storage conditions of perishable foods to determine the effect on safety and quality,” he says.
Food wastage
Hemdahl uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics to identify problems that need corrective action. “Apart from the health concerns, there is the very real problem of food wastage,” Lusted says. “The United Nations estimates that around 30 per cent of all perishable food produced globally is lost or wasted. This amounts to an incredible 1.3 billion tonnes per year.”
Hemdahl is aimed at the global cold chain market, large retailers and those transporting perishable goods. It essentially bolts on to their existing recording systems and uses information already gathered to drill down into what’s really happening with shipments.
“Our server talks to their server and we can pull the data from them or they can push it to us all through the cloud. If a load is lost due to chill injury, for example, we can see where this has happened. The ultimate aim is to automate all shipments and for Hemdahl to stand like a sentry alerting customers if something is wrong,” says Lusted, who adds that the name Hemdahl was inspired by Heimdallr, the all-seeing and all-hearing protector of Norse mythology.
“At the moment if there’s a temperature excursion, food safety personnel manually check the condition of the cargo based on taste, colour, odour and feel. Hemdahl replaces this subjective and inconsistent approach with an automated, repeatable and systematic solution. Our goal is to put a revolutionary data-analytics resource into the hands of every food safety director so they can proactively manage product risk in the cold chain.”
Vehicle telematics
The idea for Hemdahl was sparked by another of Lusted’s business interests, vehicle telematics. “We had noticed that while temperature data for perishable goods was being recorded and stored as per regulatory requirements, the data wasn’t being used beyond this to gain insights into reductions in shelf life or the growth of pathogens,” he says.
Hemdahl is based at the Galway Technology Centre and the company's co-founder, Gareth Roddy, is a software engineer who has previously developed solutions for the major refrigeration company, Thermo King. The company employs three and will make its money by selling its data insights. Investment in the business to date has been about €250,000, which has been self-funded. The first release of the product has recently taken place and while the company is currently pre-revenue, Lusted said this will change over the next few months as the trial period comes to an end.
