Food Security

With mounting concerns regarding the environmental and health impacts of conventional chemical pesticides, there is a noticeable shift towards biological alternatives. This trend is fueled by a global demand for sustainable agricultural practices and safer, more environmentally-friendly produce. However, a significant challenge persists: the comparatively lower efficacy of biological pesticides. This technology addresses the challenge of low efficacy in biological pesticides, often caused by environmental factors such as heat, UV exposure, and runoffs, especially prevalent in tropical regions. It utilises plant-derived, biodegradable materials to encapsulate the biological pesticides, protecting them from environmental factors, thereby extending their residual treatment effect and reducing usage volumes and re-application frequencies. 

Only 20% of actual coffee is extracted from beans to produce coffee in its beverage form, leaving the remaining 80% (six million tons annually) deemed as spent coffee grounds (SCG) to be disposed or used in landfills or as non-food product components to make fertilisers, furniture, deodorisers or skin care products. A technology was created to counteract SCG wastage and valorise it for human consumption. This particular invention comprises of methodologies to create two types of ingredients using leftover SCG - oil-grind and water-grind processed SCG. A simple, reproducible method of conching is employed to convert leftover SCG into smooth pastes, where specific conching parameters help refine the SCG to an acceptable particle size, eliminating grittiness in numerous valorised products similar to SCG. The product utilises common ingredients like oil and water to conche SCG with improved taste and textural properties. The shelf stability and nutritional composition (including caffeine) of the ingredients were also validated to ensure the food possessed good sensorial properties and are scale up ready. This technology increases SCG’s potential use as a versatile ingredient in different food applications. The technology provider is seeking off-takers from food manufacturers, food services industry, companies interested to valorise side streams to turn SCG into edible compounds.

Root rot diseases in food crops are devastating diseases currently without solution. Examples of such diseases are the Basal Stem Rot in oil palms, Fusarium Wilt in bananas, and Phytophthora Root Rot in citrus.  While fungicides have in vitro efficacy, most do not possess phloem mobility and therefore cannot reach the roots to effect treatment. Thus, despite widespread usage of fungicides, root rot diseases are still inadequately treated or are not treated at all. This Nano Delivery Technology imparts phloem mobility to fungicides, allowing them to reach the roots from the application site to treat and protect the crops. The technology is designed as a ready-to-use adjuvant that works with commercialised fungicides. Growers can independently and safely nano encapsulate the fungicides with basic mixing equipment and a simple, one-step mixing process. This technology is patent-pending and ready to market.

Routine monitoring of water quality is paramount in aquaculture operations such as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) to ensure high productivity and high produce quality. Currently, the monitoring of microbial content in water is mostly based on visualisation of water turbidity and observation of fish behaviour. Some RAS operations use the bacterial culture-based approach for surveillance of microbial quality of water. However, this approach is laborious, requires microbiological testing expertise, and test results are obtainable only after a long incubation period.  Bioluminescent ATP assay is another method that can be used to monitor microbial content. However, it requires lysis of bacteria to release the ATP contained inside the bacteria, and enzymatic reaction of luciferase on ATP to produce the luminescence. While it provides results within a short time, the cost of luciferase, lysis reagents and luminometer could be prohibitive for routine and extensive testing of water samples.   The technology owner has developed a non-enzymatic test reagent which gives a rapid colour change in the presence of Gram-negative bacteria. The technology owner is keen to collaborate with manufacturers of analytical instruments and diagnostic test kits, as well as partners from the aquaculture, biomedical and water quality control industries, to further develop and commercialise this technology.

One-fifth of all local and imported food in Singapore and about 15% of all food globally is spoiled during the supply chain due to inadequate food transport facilities. To overcome this, the startup offers a patented technology in the form of a hardware device that emits a magnetic interference field. It can be used throughout the supply chain starting immediately after harvest and all the way to storage and display. In particular, this technology has great potential to be applied during the food transportation when the chance of spoilage is highest due to reasons such as overripening caused by supply chain delays. The startup is looking to collaborate with food logistics and storage companies, as well as retailers, to integrate their solution.

Asia accounts for approximately 70% of the world’s seafood consumption, around 69.6 million metric tons. This is more than twice the total amount consumed by the rest of the world.* Commercially, about 30% of the seafood is not consumed, from bones to offals, to skin/shell/scales. These food loss and waste potentially impose environmental and socioeconomic issues.  The technology provider has developed a green chemical process converting seafood sidestreams into food products that are not only high value but also nutritious, addressing Singapore’s demand to increase production of nutrient dense foods. In addition, this method is efficient and cost effective as it requires basic equipment. The technology provider is looking for R&D collaborators and for test-bedding especially with industries who are producing aquaculture food with high nutritional value and interested to utilise their sidestreams more sustainably. * FAO 2018

Feed cost generally accounts for 60% to 70% of the total production costs in an intensive shrimp aquaculture system. Fishmeal, which is often the main ingredient of shrimp feed, is one of the reasons for the high cost. It is also unsustainable to use fishmeal as it is derived from fish, contributing to the depletion of other fish species on a global scale. The technology offer is an alternative protein source in shrimp feed that uses okara, a nutrient-dense side stream from soy milk and bean curd production. Direct application of unprocessed okara into shrimp feed may work, however, due to the presence of anti-nutrients, the absorption of protein and amino acids from the okara may be limited. The technology developer has formulated a shrimp feed with an optimum amount of processing to increase the digestibility and enhance the nutritional properties and at the same time lowering the cost of shrimp feed by up to 50%. Currently, the developer has developed shrimp feed suitable for L. vannamei shrimp species with complete or partial replacement of animal protein which is fish meal. The technology is available for IP licensing and IP acquisition as well as R&D collaboration with industrial partners who are keen to adopt the solution. 

One-third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted. At the same time, millions of people are hungry and unable to afford a healthy diet. Having said that, food loss and waste could potentially impose food security and impact the world with nutrition, socioeconomic, and environmental issues.  This technology offer is a process technology that provides an efficient and environmentally friendly approach to utilise agri-food side stream and convert it to a valuable, high protein biomass. The technology develops precision approaches, i.e., the proper treatment methods for food sidestreams, specific separation means for target ingredients, suitable strains for protein production, and optimized operational conditions for the fermentation process. The process also utilises the inexpensive agri-food side stream as the novel feedstock for protein fermentation. The technology is available for R&D collaboration and test bedding, with partners that are interested in valorisation of food sidestreams to value-added edible protein. The technology owner is also keen to license and commercialize this technology.

Singapore is currently only producing 13% of its vegetable consumption. With little farming land available, Singapore relies heavily on imports from other countries. Due to increasing focus on food security, the alternative to solve land scarcity problem is to build greenhouses on concrete rooftop. Although concrete rooftop greenhouse are able to keep pests out, there is a signifcant heating problem which severely inhibits the growth of the vegetables. Therefore, there is a need for a rooftop greenhouse that is able to actively cool itself to avoid such problem. This technology offer is a modular rooftop greenhouse farming system (hydroponics) capable of producing vegetables on concrete roofs to meet the local demand while reducing over-reliance on imports. The design of the greenhouse farming system enables cooling and does not heat up, thus allowing the growth of pest-free vegetables. The system is approximately the size of a typical carpark lot (2.5 x 5 m). The production rate is 30 kg per month (2.5 x 5 m size) and requires minimal human intervention. The technology offer comprises both the farming system and its operation know-how. The modular rooftop greenhouse farming system can be set-up within 3 days or scaled-up when required with guaranteed vegetable growth. The break-even cost of one greenhouse is about 3 years. The technology owner is seeking to out-license their technology.