This California Startup Has A Meat Test It Says Can Help Prevent The Next Pandemic

This California Startup Has A Meat Test It Says Can Help Prevent The Next Pandemic

Share to Linkedin Food ID, a San Mateo-based startup, has raised $12 million in a Series B round that it says will help improve the safety and transparency of the U. S. meat supply. The funding comes from S2G Ventures and will be used to commercialize the company's rapid-result tests that can detect antibiotics in animals and a range of other adulterants, like heavy metals in seafood. Food ID says it has been working inside some industrial slaughterhouses for more than a year and that its tests are finding many of the meat being sold as "antibiotic-free" are not. Northern California based grass-fed beef rancher Bill Niman has transformed the meat industry once. Now he's trying to do it again, with a testing platform that could make sure there's transparency in the meat supply chain. "There's a feeling that consumers understand what they are buying and there's authenticity," says Food ID cofounder Bill Niman, the legendary grass-fed beef rancher in Northern California. "We know that's not totally true, and when that becomes clear to the suppliers and to the brands that depend on antibiotics costing a premium to consumers, we're gonna be very busy." Niman says he is offering the