PURE Bioscience, Inc., creator of the patented silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC ) antimicrobial, discusses the company’s positioning to address the major food safety challenges faced by food manufacturers and processors, and restaurant chains this year.

Industry’s Key 2017 Food Safety Challenges

Increasing Regulatory Scrutiny: With rules finalized under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2016, the FDA is stepping up compliance and enforcement efforts through increased inspections of manufacturers and processors, especially in the areas of preventive controls and environmental monitoring programs. In addition, the USDA, under its Salmonella Action Plan, has finalized new federal standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry. To enforce compliance, the USDA is increasing the frequency and rigor of testing, and will be posting individual companies’ food safety performance online.

Persistent Foodborne Illness Outbreaks and Product Recalls: The numbers of foodborne illness outbreaks traced to food processors and restaurant chains persist, along with related product recalls. This combination negatively impacts brand value and has devastating financial and legal consequences for the companies involved and their supply chains.

Increasing Department of Justice Activity: The DOJ is increasing its investigation of food safety practices and activity and, for the first time, bringing criminal charges against implicated company executives.

All of these challenges require the industry to continually seek superior food safety solutions to those currently in use. PURE has that superior food safety solution.

PURE Bioscience Positioned to Provide Superior Solutions

With its unique, powerful, non-toxic SDC based products, PURE is providing food safety solutions to manufacturers, processors and restaurant chains to reduce the risks of food contamination and foodborne illness outbreaks. During 2016, revenues from PURE Hard Surface, an EPA registered food contact surface and environmental disinfectant, gained strong momentum and are currently at a $2 million-plus annualized run rate. Critical regulatory approvals were obtained for PURE Control, a proprietary direct food contact processing aid for fresh produce and raw poultry.

Following Chipotle Mexican Grill’s late 2016 chain-wide adoption of PURE Hard Surface as a food safety solution to eliminate and prevent Norovirus and other viruses and bacteria, PURE has been contacted by multiple restaurant chains interested in testing PURE Hard Surface in their operations.

The number of national food manufacturers and processors using PURE Hard Surface for plant and equipment surface and environmental disinfection doubled in 2016, and is on pace to more than double again in 2017. Much of the adoption is being driven by SDC’s proven superiority in eradicating and preventing Listeria, a leading and much publicized cause of foodborne illness outbreaks.

Four leading produce processors have been testing FDA approved PURE Control to eliminate pathogens, including Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria, in processed produce sold to consumers. The largest processor is currently moving testing from a pilot plant to an operating plant. Revenue generation from PURE Control use in produce processing is expected to begin in Q1 2017.

SDC in the form of PURE Control has also received FDA approval for use in poultry processing, and in 2016 received USDA approval for two uses in poultry processing. PURE continues the regulatory approval and plant trial processes to optimize the application of PURE Control in online reprocessing to gain the required regulatory approvals for use in that stage of poultry processing. The Company is expecting to receive these final regulatory approvals in the second calendar quarter, and is poised to begin commercialization immediately thereafter.

Hank R. Lambert, chief executive officer, says, “We look forward to 2017 being a breakout year for PURE. We are entering the year with meaningful and growing sales and customer adoption. We believe we are uniquely positioned…and I mean uniquely positioned, to offer solutions to the industry’s most pressing challenges of implementing preventive controls and environmental monitoring; reducing the risks of food contamination and foodborne illness outbreaks, and the attendant financial and legal consequences; and protecting companies’ most valuable assets, their brands.”