New service as a contribution to global food safety
TOKYO, September 16, 2022 – (JCN Newswire) – Fujitsu today announced the start of a strategic collaboration with Phytocontrol Group (hereafter Phytocontrol)(1), the French leader in pollutant analysis for environmental and food safety. In August, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding and as part of this collaboration, Fujitsu and Phytocontrol will develop chromatography(2) analysis services powered by artificial intelligence.
| Figure: Image of the service |
These services aim to help ensure food safety by accelerating and improving the accuracy of contaminant analysis in the food industry, and to contribute to the digital transformation (DX) of various analytical business processes by expanding services based on this analysis technology to other industries including health and cosmetics on a global scale.
Together, Fujitsu and Phytocontrol will offer end-to-end AI chromatography analysis technology through “Fujitsu Computing as a Service” (CaaS) – Fujitsu’s service portfolio that makes advanced computing technologies available to users via the cloud – to enable food companies to provide analytics services. Distributors and regulators around the world. Fujitsu and Phytocontrol intend to start providing the new service in fiscal year 2023.
This collaboration with Phytocontrol is an element of Fujitsu’s ongoing commitment to providing optimal IT environments and solutions that meet the diverse needs of customers under Fujitsu Uvance, its global business brand for realizing a sustainable world.
Global food crisis: growing need for food security
The ever-worsening global food crisis remains an ongoing problem, with approximately 400,000 people dying each year worldwide from eating contaminated food(3).
To this end, food safety and ensuring that contaminants and pollutants do not enter the food production and supply chain is an important task. However, the fast and accurate analysis of contaminants in food has become increasingly important in recent years due to the increasing number of different contaminants in food and the need to analyze a growing number of different food samples.
To address this problem, in 2020 Fujitsu and Phytocontrol developed a system that integrates Fujitsu’s AI technology and automates the process of analyzing contaminants in food and water. Not only is the AI system capable of reducing the analysis time by a factor of 5 from extracting the raw data per sample to verifying the results, but it can also reduce human error and greatly improve operational efficiency and accuracy(4).
Based on these efforts, Fujitsu and Phytocontrol started another collaboration to offer their AI-based analysis system as a service via Fujitsu’s CaaS to provide advanced and user-friendly technology to a wide range of players in the food industry.
Outline of cooperation
1. Global Provision of CaaS Food Contamination Component Analysis Services
Fujitsu CaaS includes advanced computing resources such as Fujitsu’s quantum-inspired Digital Annealer technology, the computing technology of the supercomputer Fugaku, and software applications that enable a wide range of users to solve problems with AI and machine learning via the cloud. Fujitsu CaaS will be available for the Japanese market in October 2022 and will be expanded to the global market during FY2023.
As part of their collaboration, Fujitsu and Phytocontrol will build a food contaminant analysis service that they intend to offer to a wide range of stakeholders, including food companies, retailers and regulators, via Fujitsu’s CaaS. The aim of the two companies is to support the fast and accurate analysis of pollutant components in the food industry and to contribute to ensuring food safety.
2. Expansion into other industries including healthcare and cosmetics
The two companies plan to apply services based on AI chromatography analysis technology to a variety of industries besides food, including healthcare and cosmetics, and provide services to the European and global markets. In this way, Fujitsu and Phytocontrol not only want to ensure safety in the food industry, but also contribute to solving problems in various industries by promoting DX.
Toshiaki Ariyama, SVP, Head of Uvance Core Technology Unit, Fujitsu Limited comments:
We look forward to providing a wide range of cloud services via “CaaS” based on the accumulated technologies and know-how of Phytocontrol and Fujitsu through this strategic cooperation. Together we want to provide a service that ensures food and water safety, supports people’s lives and contributes to the realization of a sustainable society.
Mikael Bresson, Founder and CEO of Phytocontrol Group comments:
We have been working successfully with Fujitsu for more than 2 years to digitize our production processes. We believe that “Fujitsu Computing as a Service” (CaaS) is a very good opportunity to accelerate and expand our cooperation to grow our business with fast and reliable chromatography analysis using artificial intelligence around the world.
(1) Phytocontrol Group:
Headquarters: Nimes, France; Founder and Managing Director: Mikael Bresson.
The purpose of Phytocontrol Group is to ensure the safety of food and the environment by providing innovative technical solutions and full support for laboratory analysis, regulatory monitoring and training, quality audits and digital traceability. Its specialist teams are structured around the 3 markets AgriFood (food processing), Water (hydrology) and BioPharma (good laboratory practice studies) to meet the health security needs of all types of customers. Phytocontrol therefore strives to ensure local support and a quality service, characterized by responsiveness and reliability.
Find out more: www.phytocontrol.com
(2) Chromatography:
A general term for the separation and analysis of the components of compounds in substances. Because the elution time is different for each component, each component is separated and detected.
(3) Globally, around 400,000 people die every year from eating contaminated food:
(Source) World Health Organization (WHO) “Estimate of the Burden of Foodborne Diseases”
(4) Fujitsu / Phytocontrol use case
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu’s goal is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the preferred digital transformation partner for clients in over 100 countries, our 124,000 employees work to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges. Our range of services and solutions are built around five key technologies: compute, networks, AI, data and security, and converging technologies that we bring together to enable sustainable transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated sales of 3.6 trillion yen (US$32 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2022 and remains the leading digital services company in Japan in terms of market share. Find out more: www.fujitsu.com.
Source: Fujitsu Ltd
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