Meet the team behind EMFood Scan: Niloofar Rezaei, Kin Wai Lee and Jarrod Zhu from the University of Canterbury. They are one of 22 ventures who are taking part in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 cohort.
We caught up with the EMFood Scan team for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about their venture and what they hope to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator.
1. Tell us about EMFood Scan. What are you building?
The story behind EMFood Scan and our technology began with an application for electrically heating timber and detecting knots within it. This technology was later adapted to detect foreign objects in liquid food. Our aim is to give producers better product monitoring and foreign-object detection, helping reduce costs and improve food safety. With its potential to advance both food safety and sensing technologies, the idea has since grown into a $5M project funded by MBIE.
2. What problem are you working to solve?
Food producers, particularly those who process liquid food, have a foreign-matter contamination problem where these foreign materials are detected too late in the process line, costing time, money, and resources.
3. How does your solution work?
The solution is an in-line pipe sensor capable of detecting differences in electrical conductivity, including both conducting and insulating foreign objects. By providing real-time information about the contents flowing through a pipe, the system detects foreign objects early in production. This can reduce costs by helping factory managers identify potential issues earlier and make better-informed decisions. Ultimately, our system helps food producers improve efficiency and increase confidence in producing high-quality, safe products.
4. What is the next important milestone for your venture?
The most important milestone for us at the moment is a successful pilot test. This is necessary to provide sufficient evidence to support a wider range of potential customers.
5. What are you hoping to get out of your time with Sprout?
We hope to reach out to more connections via the other ventures in the Sprout Accelerator programme, obtain insights from more experienced minds in the business world, and upskill ourselves along the way.
Website: Food Imaging Programme | UC