An interview with Abi Ramanan, the founder of ImpactVision, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet Abi, the founder of ImpactVision, a non-invasive, real-time food quality information tool. ImpactVicion reduces risk, prevents waste and guarantees consistent quality at production-grade speeds with machine learning and hyperspectral imaging technology. Let’s see what the founder had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Abi: ImpactVision is a venture-backed software company based in San Francisco helping food processors, manufacturers and retailers rapidly assess their product quality to drive superior product consistency, deliver premium quality, prevent supply chain waste and differentiate their brands.

ImpactVision was established in 2015, inspired by the founders’ discovery that hyperspectral imaging perceives information that the human eye cannot detect, such as internal quality and chemical composition also known as ripeness, firmness or shelf-life of food products. We believe the potential that this data has to transform the way supply chains process food is equivalent to the impact GPS had on navigation.

Our hyperspectral imaging software provides food companies with real-time information about the quality of their products to automate quality control, using cutting-edge machine learning techniques. Our goal is to build the world’s largest database of spectral signatures for food so that anyone, anywhere, can access this world of new information.

How is tech central to your business?

Abi: Hyperspectral camera(s) mounted above a conveyor belt acquire images based on how food products uniquely reflect light, revealing their chemical composition. Our machine learning models interpret the collected images in real-time, sending back instant insights on quality parameters such as freshness, tenderness or moisture.

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Abi: The world needs to produce in the next 40 years the equivalent of all the food produced in the last 10,000 years. At the same time, a third of all food produced in today’s world is wasted. We digitize food quality control to save time, prevent food waste and increase food companies’ revenues.  

Want to know more? See ImpactVision’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to ImpactVision for ranking 7th in the category “Food Safety & Traceability” of the Foodtech 500 list.

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here. For more FoodTech news, join our Food Revolution community here.