NIH Awards Amulet SBIR Grant for Consumer Gluten Sensor
MADISON, Wis. (PRWEB) August 07, 2023 -- Amulet, maker of the world’s smallest, fastest, and portable electrochemical food sensor, announced today the receipt of a National Institute of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant for detecting gluten in food.
Gluten-related disorders are a significant and growing problem estimated to affect roughly 1 in 10 Americans (33M) and 5% of the global population (400M). They include wheat allergy, gluten ataxia, dermatitis herpetiformis, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and celiac disease—an autoimmune disease in which the immune system reactions abnormally to gluten, causing damage to the lining of the small intestine.
“Gluten-related disorders are rapidly on the rise. Our goal at Amulet is to provide consumers with a tool to help them avoid gluten, and in turn, better manage their health,” says Amulet Co-Founder & CEO, Abigail Barnes.
Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, and triticale (a cross between rye and wheat) and acts as a binding agent, giving bread its chewy and elastic texture.
Intolerance to gluten can affect the skin, mood, joints, and digestive system, with common symptoms including bloating, constipation, iron deficiency, chronic fatigue, joint or muscle aches, migraines, and brain fog.
According to the FDA, for a product to be labeled gluten-free, it must contain less than 20 parts-per-million (ppm) of gluten—or less than 20 mg of gluten per 1 kg of food. The Amulet is calibrated to detect gluten at 20 ppm.
“Portable food sensors like the Amulet hold the potential to shift the frontiers of food safety testing out of the labs and into food manufacturing plants and consumer hands,” notes Dr. Bert Popping, Amulet Scientific Advisor and international food safety expert.
Currently, the best practice for managing celiac disease and gluten sensitivity is a gluten-free diet, which can be difficult when eating outside the home. In a study testing thousands of gluten-free foods at restaurants, 32% were found to contain gluten. A separate study found that 83% of patients with celiac disease or a gluten intolerance found maintaining a gluten-free diet to be challenging at restaurants, with 63% avoiding restaurants as a result.
“Reliance on waitstaff and those preparing your food is incredibly challenging, and inadvertent exposure is all too common—a tool like the Amulet would be a game-changer for my patients,” notes Dr. Jordan Scott, allergist at Northeast Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and Amulet Advisor.
Food allergies are just the tip of the iceberg, according to Barnes, sharing that pesticides and food contaminants are on the horizon for future product offerings.
“Amulet's technology is unlocking new in-field detection capabilities with the potential to benefit millions, and it’s encouraging to have NIH support to help bring this breakthrough technology to market," says Dr. Joseph BelBruno, Amulet Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor, and a professor emeritus of chemistry at Dartmouth College.
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About Amulet
Amulet is the maker of the world’s smallest, fastest, and portable food sensor. The company has two divisions: Allergy Amulet,™ which empowers consumers with a tool capable of detecting allergenic ingredients in their food; and Amulet Scientific,™ which equips industry with a detection platform for identifying biological and chemical food safety hazards and environmental contaminants.
For more information visit http://www.amulet-inc.com.
Meg Nohe, Amulet, http://www.amulet-inc.com, 1 978-934-3219, [email protected]
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