CED Tech Venture profile: FoodLogiQ, improving food safety

More and more people want transparency about the food they are eating – and Durham startup FoodLogiQ is helping clients meet that hunger with its food traceability software.

FoodLogiQ has a growing list of big-name clients, too.

“We have an established customer base that includes industry leaders like Whole Foods and Chipotle,” says CEO Dean Wiltse. “Clients we’ve added in the last 12 months include Subway, Tropical Smoothie Café, Dave and Busters, Raising Cane’s, Smashburger, Robinson Fresh and Produce Alliance.”

FoodLogiQ will make its case to potential investors at the CED Tech Conference next week.

This profile is the latest in a series of Tech Venture presenting companies as part of a partnership between WRAL TechWire and the CED.

the Q&A with FoodLogiQ:

What is the focus of your business?

FoodLogiQ, LLC provides traceability, food safety compliance and supply chain transparency software solutions. We help restaurant operators, food retailers, consumer packaged goods companies and other food companies achieve end-to-end traceability while supporting safe and high quality food products across the supply chain.

With FoodLogiQ’s platform, food companies can build an online supplier community, onboard suppliers all at once and stay on top of supplier audits and assessments. Manage quality incidents, report them directly to suppliers and recoup the costs of stock withdrawals. And with lot-level traceability, see exactly where your product is at all times, especially when it matters most during an investigation.

What is the top pain point/business application you are seeking to address?

The food supply chain is at a crossroads. Consumers are craving more transparency about the food they eat. Food recalls are on the rise. And regulatory compliance requirements of the food supply are stricter than ever. Issues surrounding safety and transparency across an increasingly complex global food supply chain are not going away.

Gathering your supply chain data together in one online platform, FoodLogiQ Connect gives you real-time visualization of the food in your supply chain – allowing you to literally track from farm-to-fork. With this traceability platform, you can respond quicker and more efficiently when you are dealing with a food safety issue or recall. With our trace-back and trace-forward features, you can pinpoint the root cause of an outbreak and see the exact stores affected and notify immediately all at once via our software. And you can verify the brand claims (non-GMO, organic, etc) you make about the food you sell to consumers.

What makes it unique?

FoodLogiQ offers the only SaaS supplier management and traceability platform that can build a visualization of the supply chain down to the lot level and track all the way back to the farm. We offer a web-based platform that’s much more efficient than how many food supply chains are managed, via spreadsheets and hard copies. For example, suppliers can manage their own documentation, assessments, audits, and regulatory compliance from a single platform – eliminating multiple costly software programs with an easy to use visual interface that unlocks efficiencies and helps to identify root cause issues to improve the food supply chain.

Why should investors be interested in your firm?

FoodLogiQ is tapping into a vast market of potential – food safety is a huge public health issue. Food recalls cost an average of $10 million – not including lost sales and brand damage. And the food traceability market is expected to reach $14 billion by 2019.

Consumers are craving transparency. They want more information about the food they eat – what’s in it and where it came from – and they’re willing to pay for it. The heightened attention is obvious at the regulatory level as well, with the first wave of many regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act taking effect next month in September.

We have an established customer base that includes industry leaders like Whole Foods and Chipotle. Clients we’ve added in the last 12 months include Subway, Tropical Smoothie Café, Dave and Busters, Raising Cane’s, Smashburger, Robinson Fresh and Produce Alliance.

Business facts: