Clear Labs, provider of the only automated and intelligent diagnostic NGS platform, today announced that it is the recipient of the 2020 IAFP’s Food Safety Innovation Award for Clear Safety. The award is presented by the International Association for Food Protection to an “organization for creating a new idea, practice, or product that has had a positive impact on food safety, thus, improving public health, and the quality of life.”

Leveraging the latest technology in genomics-based testing, bioinformatics, and robotics, the AOAC-approved Clear Safety platform helps food safety professionals reduce risk with pathogen screening which enables insights far beyond a binary “yes/no” result.

The platform utilizes targeted sequencing, which only looks at informative, carefully-selected regions of the genome which are useful for identifying and characterizing distinct pathogens. Hundreds of millions of data points per analysis are generated, which can be used to learn more about a given sample than legacy screening platforms currently allow and at unprecedented accuracy.

“In their mission to bring next-generation sequencing technology out of the clinical space and into food, Clear Labs truly represents the future of the industry,” said Mike Robach, Former VP, Corporate Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Cargill and Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Most recently, Clear Labs has unveiled their smart suite release, which incorporates machine learning algorithms into Environmental Mapping on Clear Safety. Environmental Mapping is the visualization layer of a 3-in-1 solution for Listeria detection, joining prevalence screening and persistence monitoring (resident/transient analysis). 

Two of the most anticipated tools in this release include:

• Smart Scheduling: Existing scheduling options require tight orchestration of collection point design, recurrence, proper facility coverage and robust record keeping.  Smart Scheduling, directly integrated with the Clear Safety platform, leverages machine learning to enable intuitively-designed environmental sampling plans within food production settings. The enhanced approach removes complexity from the scheduling process, automating volumes of input considerations.  The output is translated into a clear course of action, maximizing the ROI of environmental monitoring plans.
• Smart Investigation: Identifying contamination root cause has never been easier.  In the event of positive samples detected, food safety professionals can create software-led investigations to uncover origin.  This novel investigation management tool integrates sample plans with strain-level identity and seamlessly helps to suggest organism provenance.  A vector strategy is provided, attacking the source of the problem at a speed never before possible and minimizing chance of recurrence.

“Clear Safety is a result of years of learning, of listening, and of iterating to create the best possible product to serve the food industry,” said Sasan Amini, CEO of Clear Labs. “For us, the Innovation Award is validation to continue advancing our technology and innovating, which is exactly what we’re doing with our latest updates.”

Clear Labs was founded in 2014 to aid food brands ushering in a new era of food safety with the most accurate and advanced testing capabilities.

To learn more about Clear Labs, please visit: http://www.clearlabs.com/.